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 Paraguay and from Houston.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Average White Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Gerry Rafferty. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers Ubiquity tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shuggie Otis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Guru Guru record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Howard Jones,
Porter Ricks,
the Slits,
Neu!,
Vladislav Delay,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sandy B,
The Kinks,
Saccharine Trust,
Maleditus Sound,
Lindisfarne,
The Birthday Party,
Brand Nubian,
Sixth Finger,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Piero Umiliani,
The Five Americans,
The Vogues,
Newcleus,
The Fall,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Hot Snakes,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Derrick Morgan,
Mars,
The Blackbyrds,
The Misunderstood,
The Real Kids,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Lebanon Hanover,
Aswad,
Eden Ahbez,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Fatback Band,
The Doors,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Outsiders,
Arthur Verocai,
10cc,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Black Flag,
The Gun Club,
Pole,
The Evens,
Underground Resistance,
Half Japanese,
Sam Rivers,
Sparks,
Aaron Thompson,
Malaria!,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Barbara Tucker,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Toasters,
The Divine Comedy,
FM Einheit,
Hashim,
Flamin' Groovies,
Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters.
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.