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 Madagascar and from Mumbai.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Slick Rick 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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All The Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bob Dylan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeff Lynne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Flipper,
Derrick Morgan,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Glenn Branca,
Eli Mardock,
Tubeway Army,
Dead Boys,
Matthew Bourne,
A Flock of Seagulls,
David Bowie,
Wolf Eyes,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Pretty Things,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Intrusion,
Heaven 17,
Tim Buckley,
The Victims,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Dirtbombs,
Altered Images,
James White and The Blacks,
Ituana,
Leonard Cohen,
Theoretical Girls,
Harry Pussy,
Ludus,
Jeff Mills,
Patti Smith,
Althea and Donna,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
the Bar-Kays,
Bizarre Inc.,
Dawn Penn,
Kas Product,
Ultravox,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Real Kids,
Sixth Finger,
Erykah Badu,
Guru Guru,
T.S.O.L.,
Scan 7,
OOIOO,
Juan Atkins,
The Martian,
Aloha Tigers,
Jacob Miller,
the Swans,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Zapp,
Skriet,
Excepter,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Joe Finger,
The Moleskins,
Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide.
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.