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 Kuwait and from Portland.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Bill Near to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Con Funk Shun. All the underground hits.
All Todd Terry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eden Ahbez record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Public Image Ltd. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Barracudas,
Crooked Eye,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
David Bowie,
Gil Scott Heron,
Radiohead,
JFA,
Jandek,
Hasil Adkins,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Soulsonic Force,
The Walker Brothers,
The Alarm Clocks,
Amazonics,
Tom Boy,
Khruangbin,
Flipper,
Anakelly,
Deepchord,
Eurythmics,
Funky Four + One,
Minutemen,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Swell Maps,
Davy DMX,
Al Stewart,
Pussy Galore,
Peter & Gordon,
The Selecter,
Wire,
The Fugs,
ABC,
Matthew Bourne,
Intrusion,
Albert Ayler,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Crispian St. Peters,
R.M.O.,
Black Bananas,
Parry Music,
F. McDonald,
Oneida,
Masters at Work,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Music Machine,
Animal Collective,
Thompson Twins,
The Stooges,
The Last Poets,
Warren Ellis,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Mummies,
In Retrospect,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lakeside,
Gregory Isaacs,
The United States of America,
John Cale,
Wolf Eyes,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.