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 Greece and from Bologna.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Youth Brigade to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Bronski Beat. All the underground hits.
All E-Dancer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mary Jane Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
KRS-One,
Aaron Thompson,
Q and Not U,
Spoonie Gee,
The Angels of Light,
the Association,
The Tremeloes,
X-101,
Pulsallama,
David Axelrod,
The Monks,
Yazoo,
The Mojo Men,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Harmonia,
Subhumans,
Japan,
World's Most,
Ludus,
Robert Görl,
Don Cherry,
Grey Daturas,
Rotary Connection,
Gang Green,
L. Decosne,
R.M.O.,
The Invisible,
AZ,
Das Ding,
Sound Behaviour,
The Slits,
Silicon Teens,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Leaves,
The Durutti Column,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Trumans Water,
Los Fastidios,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Moebius,
Zapp,
Electric Prunes,
Nico,
The Buckinghams,
The Residents,
Fluxion,
Qualms,
Sonny Sharrock,
Sun Ra,
Anthony Braxton,
Scientists,
The Golliwogs,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Bad Manners,
Tom Boy,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Country Teasers,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
the Germs,
Traffic Nightmare,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.