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 Guinea and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Ponytail to the punk 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 Brand Nubian. All the underground hits.
All X-Ray Spex tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Underground Resistance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soul Sonic Force record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slits,
Marcia Griffiths,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Masters at Work,
Sonic Youth,
OOIOO,
Television,
Harmonia,
Minny Pops,
MC5,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Invisible,
Stetsasonic,
Country Teasers,
Andrew Hill,
the Sonics,
Byron Stingily,
Rufus Thomas,
Thee Headcoats,
Youth Brigade,
Joey Negro,
Bob Dylan,
Mo-Dettes,
June Days,
The Cramps,
Heaven 17,
The Moleskins,
Nick Fraelich,
Symarip,
Ultra Naté,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
D'Angelo,
Pole,
The Count Five,
Gang Green,
The Names,
Alton Ellis,
The Shadows of Knight,
Little Man,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Anakelly,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Leonard Cohen,
Skriet,
Moss Icon,
Yusef Lateef,
Sandy B,
Jacques Brel,
The Toasters,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Von Mondo,
Hasil Adkins,
Carl Craig,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Rosa Yemen,
Tropical Tobacco,
Blossom Toes,
World's Most,
Ice-T,
The Litter,
Depeche Mode,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.