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 Mauritius and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the marimba 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 Joey Negro to the disco 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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Anakelly tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sarah Menescal 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra Arkestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pole,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Little Man,
Massinfluence,
Minutemen,
The Trojans,
The Gap Band,
Byron Stingily,
R.M.O.,
K-Klass,
The Walker Brothers,
The Victims,
The J.B.'s,
Terry Callier,
The Last Poets,
The United States of America,
Zapp,
Buzzcocks,
Fela Kuti,
Junior Murvin,
Hoover,
Interpol,
The Music Machine,
Electric Prunes,
Chrome,
Mo-Dettes,
Gil Scott Heron,
Wasted Youth,
The Young Rascals,
Colin Newman,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Grauzone,
Groovy Waters,
Matthew Halsall,
Mandrill,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Monochrome Set,
The Stooges,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Q and Not U,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Bronski Beat,
Wings,
Laurel Aitken,
L. Decosne,
Niagra,
Sun Ra,
Blake Baxter,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Minnie Riperton,
Don Cherry,
Country Teasers,
the Slits,
Eddi Front,
Vladislav Delay,
The Litter,
Albert Ayler,
Radiopuhelimet,
Faust,
Das Ding,
The Blackbyrds,
Gabor Szabo,
The Alarm Clocks,
Deakin, Deakin, Deakin, Deakin.
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.