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 Colombia and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Robert Palmer 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 Monochrome Set to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Joe Finger. All the underground hits.
All Lindisfarne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crime 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bad Manners,
The Count Five,
Flipper,
Rufus Thomas,
Crime,
Rotary Connection,
Warren Ellis,
The Wake,
Swell Maps,
Gastr Del Sol,
Yazoo,
Pulsallama,
Bill Wells,
Popol Vuh,
Fatback Band,
The Pop Group,
The Happenings,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Don Cherry,
The Divine Comedy,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Mad Mike,
Index,
Bootsy Collins,
Mandrill,
Cecil Taylor,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Loose Ends,
Quantec,
Urselle,
Barrington Levy,
DNA,
The New Christs,
The Dead C,
Lungfish,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Livin' Joy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Trojans,
Nation of Ulysses,
Neu!,
Pet Shop Boys,
Throbbing Gristle,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Cramps,
Archie Shepp,
Lou Christie,
Camouflage,
Section 25,
Bang On A Can,
The Gories,
Black Flag,
Chris & Cosey,
PIL,
Agitation Free,
New Age Steppers,
Little Man,
Sugar Minott,
David McCallum,
La Düsseldorf,
Lucky Dragons,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.