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 Guinea and from London.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Johannesburg.
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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 John Cale to the jazz 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 Liliput. All the underground hits.
All The Angels of Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Absolute Body Control record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hashim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Chrome,
Nas,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Drive Like Jehu,
Deadbeat,
Pharoah Sanders,
Marcia Griffiths,
Sex Pistols,
Audionom,
The Count Five,
Brick,
D'Angelo,
Reagan Youth,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Moleskins,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Liliput,
Suicide,
June Days,
Warren Ellis,
R.M.O.,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gang Green,
Neil Young,
Donald Byrd,
Sexual Harrassment,
L. Decosne,
Bobby Byrd,
Desert Stars,
Soul II Soul,
Crispy Ambulance,
Tropical Tobacco,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Flash Fearless,
Sound Behaviour,
Sun City Girls,
The Durutti Column,
Rakim,
Panda Bear,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Ronnie Foster,
Todd Terry,
Gang of Four,
the Sonics,
Jacques Brel,
X-101,
The Last Poets,
Neu!,
The Fire Engines,
Infiniti,
The Angels of Light,
Blossom Toes,
Hoover,
Royal Trux,
Donny Hathaway,
Sonic Youth,
Guru Guru,
Barclay James Harvest,
Aswad,
Eric Copeland, Eric Copeland, Eric Copeland, Eric Copeland.
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.