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 Tunisia and from Mumbai.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Man Parrish to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Sonny Sharrock. All the underground hits.
All The Doobie Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jerry Gold Smith 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a June Days record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
OOIOO,
LL Cool J,
Johnny Clarke,
The Last Poets,
Marcia Griffiths,
Matthew Bourne,
Qualms,
Duran Duran,
D'Angelo,
Kerrie Biddell,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Leaves,
Lou Reed,
Alton Ellis,
Simply Red,
Sarah Menescal,
Alice Coltrane,
Reuben Wilson,
New Order,
Youth Brigade,
New York Dolls,
Scientists,
B.T. Express,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Idris Muhammad,
Yellowson,
Maleditus Sound,
10cc,
Chrome,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Modern Lovers,
Minutemen,
AZ,
Monks,
the Slits,
The Pretty Things,
The Slits,
The Misunderstood,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Lucky Dragons,
The Selecter,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Camouflage,
Jandek,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Dennis Brown,
Country Teasers,
Skaos,
Piero Umiliani,
Spandau Ballet,
Fatback Band,
Mission of Burma,
Janne Schatter,
Stiv Bators,
The Dirtbombs,
Bob Dylan,
Half Japanese,
Liliput,
Public Image Ltd.,
Mo-Dettes,
Curtis Mayfield,
Glambeats Corp.,
Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail.
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.