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 Botswana and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 chamberlin 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 Jeff Mills to the crunk 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 Ash Ra Tempel. All the underground hits.
All Fat Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Surgeon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 mellotron and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reuben Wilson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lakeside,
Cymande,
Depeche Mode,
Radio Birdman,
Alice Coltrane,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Donny Hathaway,
Slave,
Fatback Band,
China Crisis,
The Gories,
Khruangbin,
OOIOO,
Public Enemy,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Raincoats,
Leonard Cohen,
Anthony Braxton,
Suburban Knight,
The Last Poets,
The Divine Comedy,
Henry Cow,
Livin' Joy,
Radiohead,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Johnny Clarke,
Crime,
Mo-Dettes,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Jandek,
Johnny Osbourne,
Michelle Simonal,
Sixth Finger,
Pierre Henry,
Sex Pistols,
Jeff Mills,
A Flock of Seagulls,
T. Rex,
Al Stewart,
The Wake,
Deepchord,
Q and Not U,
Funkadelic,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Popol Vuh,
Thee Headcoats,
The Kinks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Gang Starr,
Steve Hackett,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eric Copeland,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Mandrill,
Organ,
The Moody Blues,
Idris Muhammad,
Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne.
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.