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 Sweden and from Winnipeg.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Tommy Roe to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Barracudas. All the underground hits.
All Das Ding tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chris & Cosey record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott Heron,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Avey Tare,
Frankie Knuckles,
Cameo,
Schoolly D,
Prince Buster,
The Gladiators,
Faust,
Soft Machine,
Jesper Dahlback,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
T.S.O.L.,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Pantaleimon,
Mad Mike,
Morten Harket,
Matthew Bourne,
Arthur Verocai,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Average White Band,
The Motions,
The Martian,
Maurizio,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
E-Dancer,
Crooked Eye,
Terry Callier,
The Leaves,
Unrelated Segments,
John Coltrane,
The Blues Magoos,
Harry Pussy,
Cybotron,
Sound Behaviour,
Pagans,
the Slits,
Rakim,
MC5,
Jeff Lynne,
Ultravox,
The Durutti Column,
Magma,
Brothers Johnson,
Second Layer,
Todd Terry,
Jerry's Kids,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
John Holt,
The Divine Comedy,
The Pretty Things,
Derrick Morgan,
Skaos,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Dirtbombs,
Basic Channel,
Quadrant,
Tom Boy,
Skriet,
David Bowie,
The Angels of Light,
Lakeside,
Boredoms, Boredoms, Boredoms, Boredoms.
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.