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 Venezuela and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago to the dance 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 Mary Jane Girls. All the underground hits.
All The Durutti Column tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Minnie Riperton,
Michelle Simonal,
James White and The Blacks,
Dorothy Ashby,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Brothers Johnson,
Slick Rick,
Ornette Coleman,
Blossom Toes,
Second Layer,
The Fall,
Severed Heads,
The Moleskins,
Ultravox,
Lakeside,
Ice-T,
Piero Umiliani,
The Birthday Party,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Associates,
Tom Boy,
Barry Ungar,
Matthew Bourne,
Alison Limerick,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Stereo Dub,
Von Mondo,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Real Kids,
The Vogues,
Pet Shop Boys,
B.T. Express,
Surgeon,
Royal Trux,
Scan 7,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Sound,
The Detroit Cobras,
Jeff Mills,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Whodini,
June of 44,
Mark Hollis,
David McCallum,
The Golliwogs,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eli Mardock,
The Tremeloes,
OOIOO,
John Lydon,
The Names,
Outsiders,
Thompson Twins,
Lou Reed,
Terry Callier,
Maurizio,
The Grass Roots,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Alton Ellis,
Mary Jane Girls,
Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol.
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.