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 France and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the güiro 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 The Offenders to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Idris Muhammad. All the underground hits.
All Bluetip tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Siglo XX,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gang of Four,
Bill Wells,
Agent Orange,
Blancmange,
Outsiders,
the Fania All-Stars,
Roger Hodgson,
Gong,
Colin Newman,
Royal Trux,
Gang Starr,
Albert Ayler,
Young Marble Giants,
Chrome,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Pop Group,
Jesper Dahlback,
Brick,
Warsaw,
Severed Heads,
Monks,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Qualms,
This Heat,
Chris & Cosey,
Bauhaus,
AZ,
Fatback Band,
Malaria!,
Ronnie Foster,
Stockholm Monsters,
the Soft Cell,
Khruangbin,
The Five Americans,
Ituana,
The Shadows of Knight,
Pere Ubu,
The Happenings,
The Alarm Clocks,
Lower 48,
The Pretty Things,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sugar Minott,
The Angels of Light,
The Smoke,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Andrew Hill,
Carl Craig,
Von Mondo,
Anthony Braxton,
Barbara Tucker,
Lakeside,
The Monks,
The Techniques,
Reagan Youth,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Excepter,
Accadde A, Accadde A, Accadde A, Accadde A.
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.