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 El Salvador and from Lagos.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Connie Case to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Ash Ra Tempel. All the underground hits.
All Iggy Pop tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minutemen record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Buckinghams record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Halsall,
Stereo Dub,
Sex Pistols,
Rakim,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Accadde A,
Thee Headcoats,
The Associates,
Masters at Work,
Anthony Braxton,
Curtis Mayfield,
Eden Ahbez,
Faraquet,
ABBA,
Television,
B.T. Express,
Ponytail,
Wasted Youth,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Stetsasonic,
Lyres,
Maurizio,
James White and The Blacks,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Skarface,
The Index,
Schoolly D,
Sun City Girls,
Public Image Ltd.,
Traffic Nightmare,
Joy Division,
Minnie Riperton,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Amon Düül II,
Tears for Fears,
Sparks,
Crime,
Al Stewart,
The Remains,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Infiniti,
Letta Mbulu,
Leonard Cohen,
Harmonia,
The Shadows of Knight,
Radiopuhelimet,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Buckinghams,
Reuben Wilson,
Make Up,
Aswad,
Jimmy McGriff,
Camouflage,
The Alarm Clocks,
Pole,
Scott Walker,
Ultra Naté,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Public Enemy,
Procol Harum, Procol Harum, Procol Harum, Procol Harum.
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.