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 Belgium and from Halifax.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Supertramp to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Saints. All the underground hits.
All Gichy Dan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eve St. Jones record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an oboe and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Juan Atkins,
The Doobie Brothers,
Index,
LL Cool J,
The Cowsills,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Mojo Men,
Robert Görl,
Derrick May,
The Sound,
The Birthday Party,
Andrew Hill,
Nas,
Silicon Teens,
Qualms,
Boredoms,
ABC,
A Certain Ratio,
Toni Rubio,
Marcia Griffiths,
Barry Ungar,
Crispy Ambulance,
Delon & Dalcan,
Sight & Sound,
Deadbeat,
Drive Like Jehu,
Pierre Henry,
Yaz,
Alison Limerick,
AZ,
Godley & Creme,
Traffic Nightmare,
Wasted Youth,
Ponytail,
Bronski Beat,
The Last Poets,
Severed Heads,
Brothers Johnson,
Technova,
The Cure,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Supertramp,
Warsaw,
Aural Exciters,
Iggy Pop,
Kas Product,
Kerrie Biddell,
Suburban Knight,
Young Marble Giants,
The New Christs,
The Selecter,
The Remains,
John Coltrane,
Ultimate Spinach,
Gang Starr,
PIL,
Stockholm Monsters,
Moss Icon,
The Busters,
The Victims,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Litter,
Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free.
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.