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 Ivory Coast and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 Nile Rodgers 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 One Last Wish to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 an oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a X-Ray Spex record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
Rhythm & Sound,
Big Daddy Kane,
Eden Ahbez,
The Associates,
Marmalade,
Bobby Womack,
The Smoke,
The Red Krayola,
Judy Mowatt,
Yazoo,
Stockholm Monsters,
Darondo,
Cal Tjader,
Erykah Badu,
Anthony Braxton,
Swell Maps,
The Martian,
Arthur Verocai,
the Soft Cell,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Mummies,
Joey Negro,
Minny Pops,
Robert Görl,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Monolake,
Banda Bassotti,
Porter Ricks,
The Sound,
Cecil Taylor,
One Last Wish,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sound Behaviour,
Nas,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Saccharine Trust,
Junior Murvin,
The Alarm Clocks,
Ultravox,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Khruangbin,
Public Enemy,
Bobby Byrd,
Pylon,
Sexual Harrassment,
Sam Rivers,
Sarah Menescal,
Black Bananas,
The Doobie Brothers,
Flash Fearless,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Cure,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Graham Central Station,
Albert Ayler,
The Raincoats,
LL Cool J,
Toni Rubio,
Silicon Teens,
Lou Reed,
Fela Kuti,
Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water.
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.