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 Canada and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 Sao Paulo and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Sight & Sound to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Invisible. All the underground hits.
All Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pretty Things record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ 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 Motions,
Joe Smooth,
The Pretty Things,
Roy Ayers,
Lakeside,
Reagan Youth,
Grandmaster Flash,
Bill Wells,
June of 44,
The Busters,
Brand Nubian,
Banda Bassotti,
Funky Four + One,
John Lydon,
Nick Fraelich,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Qualms,
The Monks,
Technova,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
CMW,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ornette Coleman,
Arthur Verocai,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Bad Manners,
D'Angelo,
The Doors,
Absolute Body Control,
Gil Scott Heron,
Robert Görl,
The Move,
Tommy Roe,
Schoolly D,
Nation of Ulysses,
Skarface,
Drive Like Jehu,
Eric B and Rakim,
Yusef Lateef,
The Wake,
Colin Newman,
Anakelly,
The Invisible,
Bobby Womack,
John Foxx,
Cluster,
John Coltrane,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Sound,
Chris Corsano,
The Seeds,
Unrelated Segments,
World's Most,
The Golliwogs,
Pantaleimon,
Fela Kuti,
Ice-T,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Vogues,
Marc Almond,
Pylon,
The Standells,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.