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 Angola and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Donald Fagen 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 The Offenders to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 New Age Steppers. All the underground hits.
All Desert Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J 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 a clarinet and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mission of Burma record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Invisible,
Electric Prunes,
Roy Ayers,
Todd Rundgren,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Sarah Menescal,
Index,
Scott Walker,
David Bowie,
the Fania All-Stars,
Laurel Aitken,
L. Decosne,
Fluxion,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Boz Scaggs,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sixth Finger,
Judy Mowatt,
Minor Threat,
Aaron Thompson,
Delta 5,
Saccharine Trust,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Peter and Kerry,
Eli Mardock,
New Age Steppers,
Bauhaus,
Maleditus Sound,
Charles Mingus,
Lindisfarne,
Yellowson,
The Knickerbockers,
Sight & Sound,
In Retrospect,
Suburban Knight,
David Axelrod,
Pole,
Bob Dylan,
Ohio Players,
Arthur Verocai,
the Association,
Flipper,
Pulsallama,
Black Flag,
Hasil Adkins,
Grauzone,
Mars,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Beau Brummels,
Moby Grape,
Kas Product,
ABC,
Hashim,
Hot Snakes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Neu!,
The Index,
Cluster, Cluster, Cluster, Cluster.
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.