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 Liberia and from Bremen.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Saints 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 Ohio Players. All the underground hits.
All The Sonics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Dolphy,
Black Bananas,
Spoonie Gee,
Frankie Knuckles,
Crispy Ambulance,
Fad Gadget,
Half Japanese,
Glambeats Corp.,
Ohio Players,
Stockholm Monsters,
the Germs,
The Modern Lovers,
Cal Tjader,
The Evens,
Radiopuhelimet,
Slave,
Hoover,
Swell Maps,
Fugazi,
The Martian,
Andrew Hill,
Television,
Symarip,
Dark Day,
Black Moon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Angels of Light,
Chris Corsano,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Flash Fearless,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Roxette,
The Doors,
Swans,
The Seeds,
Faust,
The Standells,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gastr Del Sol,
Vainqueur,
Steve Hackett,
Nirvana,
Rotary Connection,
Hashim,
MC5,
AZ,
A Certain Ratio,
The Grass Roots,
Delta 5,
Matthew Bourne,
Scion,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Sound Behaviour,
Aural Exciters,
Adolescents,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mark Hollis,
Simply Red,
Lyres,
Black Flag,
Lebanon Hanover,
Dennis Brown,
Brass Construction,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.