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 Mongolia and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mojo Men to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Nik Kershaw. All the underground hits.
All Angels of Light & Akron/Family tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scan 7 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Osbourne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun City Girls,
Zero Boys,
Gil Scott Heron,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Underground Resistance,
Aloha Tigers,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Oblivians,
Minnie Riperton,
Arab on Radar,
Henry Cow,
Alton Ellis,
Hoover,
Skaos,
Boz Scaggs,
The Standells,
Junior Murvin,
Alphaville,
Peter and Kerry,
Warsaw,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Outsiders,
Wire,
The Fall,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Ludus,
Eve St. Jones,
48th St. Collective,
Lee Hazlewood,
Tim Buckley,
June Days,
Bizarre Inc.,
Toni Rubio,
Schoolly D,
Todd Terry,
Nico,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Echospace,
the Swans,
Excepter,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
K-Klass,
La Düsseldorf,
Andrew Hill,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Moebius,
The Names,
Carl Craig,
H. Thieme,
Inner City,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Organ,
MC5,
The Zeros,
Pantaleimon,
The Leaves,
Trumans Water,
The Dave Clark Five,
Amon Düül II,
Television Personalities,
Boogie Down Productions,
The New Christs,
Fear,
Half Japanese, Half Japanese, Half Japanese, Half Japanese.
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.