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 Morocco 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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Five Americans to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Organ. All the underground hits.
All Popol Vuh tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Delon & Dalcan 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a cv313 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Magazine,
Rosa Yemen,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Harry Pussy,
Japan,
Public Enemy,
Robert Wyatt,
Tommy Roe,
The Blackbyrds,
The United States of America,
Juan Atkins,
Eve St. Jones,
Roxette,
Gang Green,
Basic Channel,
Deakin,
Chrome,
Cameo,
Liliput,
Camouflage,
X-102,
The Detroit Cobras,
Symarip,
Altered Images,
Qualms,
Gang Starr,
Motorama,
Crooked Eye,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Terry Callier,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Fugs,
Robert Hood,
Yusef Lateef,
Little Man,
Lower 48,
Metal Thangz,
Niagra,
Drexciya,
The Gladiators,
Wings,
H. Thieme,
Joensuu 1685,
Brass Construction,
EPMD,
T.S.O.L.,
Ornette Coleman,
Sun City Girls,
Lou Christie,
The Monochrome Set,
Leonard Cohen,
Erasure,
Skriet,
Minutemen,
The Cramps,
Echospace,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Mars,
New Age Steppers,
Susan Cadogan,
The Remains, The Remains, The Remains, The Remains.
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.