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 Madagascar and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 Manchester and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 oboe 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 Yellowson 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 Larry & the Blue Notes. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlbäck 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Althea and Donna record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Neu!,
The Monochrome Set,
Brick,
Television Personalities,
The American Breed,
Infiniti,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
One Last Wish,
The Kinks,
Rosa Yemen,
the Slits,
Jesper Dahlback,
Eve St. Jones,
The Skatalites,
Ultravox,
David Bowie,
The Golliwogs,
Inner City,
Spoonie Gee,
June Days,
Rapeman,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Royal Trux,
Stetsasonic,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lungfish,
Marshall Jefferson,
Drexciya,
Moss Icon,
X-Ray Spex,
James White and The Blacks,
Amazonics,
Cameo,
Pulsallama,
Charles Mingus,
Audionom,
Andrew Hill,
Model 500,
Youth Brigade,
T.S.O.L.,
Jeru the Damaja,
Subhumans,
The Leaves,
Roger Hodgson,
D'Angelo,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sandy B,
Underground Resistance,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Skaos,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Malaria!,
Ronnie Foster,
Blancmange,
Albert Ayler,
Black Bananas,
Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars.
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.