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 Laos and from Beijing.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Kool G Rap & DJ Polo to the rap 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 Normal. All the underground hits.
All Don Cherry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Neon Judgement record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dorothy Ashby,
Magma,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
AZ,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Andrew Hill,
Deakin,
Zapp,
Piero Umiliani,
The Gun Club,
Jacques Brel,
Mars,
Barrington Levy,
H. Thieme,
Lindisfarne,
Kerrie Biddell,
Todd Rundgren,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Monolake,
Nirvana,
New York Dolls,
Au Pairs,
Marc Almond,
Angry Samoans,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Rosa Yemen,
Minny Pops,
Ultra Naté,
James White and The Blacks,
Dennis Brown,
The Tremeloes,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Section 25,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Birthday Party,
Panda Bear,
Hardrive,
Neil Young,
Metal Thangz,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Eurythmics,
Cameo,
MC5,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Television Personalities,
The Count Five,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Music Machine,
The Shadows of Knight,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Reagan Youth,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Lou Christie,
Eli Mardock,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Half Japanese,
Wolf Eyes,
Pere Ubu,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Stockholm Monsters,
Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra.
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.