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 Syria and from Madrid.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Aswad to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Byron Stingily tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every CMW record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Lafayette Afro Rock Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Fortunes,
Visage,
Fad Gadget,
Pole,
Flash Fearless,
Gang Starr,
The Residents,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Minor Threat,
Avey Tare,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Techniques,
The Real Kids,
Lungfish,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
the Soft Cell,
Gang Green,
Dark Day,
cv313,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Youth Brigade,
Subhumans,
Khruangbin,
The Doors,
Quadrant,
Scrapy,
Y Pants,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Simply Red,
Fat Boys,
Idris Muhammad,
Faust,
Von Mondo,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Monks,
Tim Buckley,
Hoover,
Piero Umiliani,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lalo Schifrin,
Panda Bear,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Buzzcocks,
Jeff Lynne,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Ituana,
Make Up,
Erasure,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Marine Girls,
Angry Samoans,
K-Klass,
the Swans,
Terrestrial Tones,
Pantytec,
Smog,
Dead Boys,
Grauzone,
Prince Buster, Prince Buster, Prince Buster, Prince Buster.
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.