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 Maldives and from Jakarta.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 Warsaw to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Wake. All the underground hits.
All Tom Boy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sugar Minott 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Fatback Band,
Model 500,
New Order,
Amon Düül,
Jimmy McGriff,
Thompson Twins,
the Soft Cell,
Morten Harket,
Soft Machine,
Ohio Players,
The Birthday Party,
Moby Grape,
Man Parrish,
Chris & Cosey,
The Pretty Things,
The Sonics,
Tommy Roe,
John Coltrane,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Simply Red,
Eve St. Jones,
Jacques Brel,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Cheater Slicks,
Audionom,
Steve Hackett,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Quando Quango,
La Düsseldorf,
a-ha,
Con Funk Shun,
Pharoah Sanders,
Black Moon,
Jeru the Damaja,
Agitation Free,
Cluster,
The American Breed,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Sonny Sharrock,
Don Cherry,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Kerri Chandler,
David Axelrod,
Donny Hathaway,
Pylon,
Anakelly,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rakim,
Sister Nancy,
Black Sheep,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Marmalade,
Cymande,
10cc,
Kerrie Biddell,
ABC,
Agent Orange,
Todd Rundgren,
Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu.
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.