Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Nauru and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Audionom to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by David McCallum. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlback record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bush Tetras record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Idris Muhammad,
Matthew Bourne,
Half Japanese,
The Doors,
Lightning Bolt,
Lindisfarne,
Ornette Coleman,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Joy Division,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Pop Group,
Sällskapet,
Lower 48,
Joyce Sims,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Rapeman,
DJ Style,
Unwound,
Charles Mingus,
Visage,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Residents,
The Velvet Underground,
The Names,
Unrelated Segments,
Kerri Chandler,
The Smiths,
John Lydon,
The Leaves,
Minor Threat,
The Angels of Light,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Ten City,
the Bar-Kays,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Eve St. Jones,
Graham Central Station,
Grey Daturas,
Robert Görl,
Terry Callier,
Bad Manners,
Delta 5,
The United States of America,
Derrick Morgan,
Smog,
Eric B and Rakim,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Hashim,
Brand Nubian,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Underground Resistance,
Nils Olav,
Echospace,
Suicide,
Interpol,
A Certain Ratio,
The Five Americans,
Cluster,
Isaac Hayes,
the Normal,
Sight & Sound, Sight & Sound, Sight & Sound, Sight & Sound.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.