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 Brunei and from Manchester.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Rotary Connection to the jazz 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 The Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Peter & Gordon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Model 500 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Throbbing Gristle record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
Cymande,
Index,
Agitation Free,
The Slackers,
Aural Exciters,
David Bowie,
the Fania All-Stars,
Patti Smith,
Suburban Knight,
Delon & Dalcan,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Ornette Coleman,
Wings,
Reuben Wilson,
The Remains,
Average White Band,
Ice-T,
Whodini,
cv313,
Black Sheep,
the Normal,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Au Pairs,
Marcia Griffiths,
Gang Starr,
Sound Behaviour,
Guru Guru,
Los Fastidios,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Vogues,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Black Dice,
Fatback Band,
Drexciya,
Interpol,
Bob Dylan,
Amon Düül,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Tommy Roe,
The Gladiators,
Eve St. Jones,
Jandek,
Kayak,
The Stooges,
Arcadia,
Excepter,
B.T. Express,
Robert Görl,
Tim Buckley,
Sister Nancy,
Vladislav Delay,
Sixth Finger,
DJ Sneak,
Slick Rick,
Accadde A,
Ken Boothe,
Con Funk Shun,
Kurtis Blow,
Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee.
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.