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 Mongolia and from Spokane.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Mexico City.
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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the electroclash 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 Masters at Work. All the underground hits.
All Fluxion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Move 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Supertramp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Y Pants,
A Certain Ratio,
KRS-One,
The Beau Brummels,
The Zeros,
Pharoah Sanders,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Joey Negro,
Blake Baxter,
The Associates,
Vainqueur,
Fela Kuti,
The Evens,
DJ Style,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
London Community Gospel Choir,
kango's stein massive,
Moss Icon,
Lungfish,
Blossom Toes,
Franke,
Arthur Verocai,
The Leaves,
Magazine,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Soft Machine,
Crooked Eye,
Con Funk Shun,
Ronnie Foster,
The Happenings,
Monks,
New Age Steppers,
Section 25,
Rekid,
Flipper,
Yaz,
Al Stewart,
Hardrive,
Public Enemy,
Royal Trux,
Interpol,
Big Daddy Kane,
Make Up,
Los Fastidios,
Pere Ubu,
Robert Hood,
The Invisible,
48th St. Collective,
Eric Dolphy,
Dawn Penn,
The Fugs,
Mo-Dettes,
Lucky Dragons,
Oneida,
The Fortunes,
Qualms,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dual Sessions,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.