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 Nigeria and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Captain Beefheart 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 The Remains to the grime 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 Scion. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James White and The Blacks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dorothy Ashby record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tim Buckley,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Dead C,
Organ,
Rites of Spring,
the Soft Cell,
Fluxion,
Peter and Kerry,
Bob Dylan,
Mark Hollis,
Black Sheep,
The New Christs,
Bauhaus,
The Kinks,
Fat Boys,
Flash Fearless,
The Angels of Light,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Lou Christie,
Gang Green,
The Gories,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Barracudas,
Suicide,
Soulsonic Force,
MC5,
Rosa Yemen,
The Golliwogs,
Pylon,
Khruangbin,
Grauzone,
Unwound,
Connie Case,
The Names,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Infiniti,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Blake Baxter,
Mission of Burma,
Arab on Radar,
Wally Richardson,
Blancmange,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Delta 5,
Moss Icon,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Essential Logic,
Ice-T,
Stockholm Monsters,
World's Most,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Aural Exciters,
Charles Mingus,
Lalann,
Liliput,
Popol Vuh,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Darondo,
The Young Rascals,
Desert Stars,
Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas.
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.