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 Libya and from Mumbai.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Houston.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 PIL to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Infiniti. All the underground hits.
All The Detroit Cobras tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glenn Branca record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül,
Lindisfarne,
The Electric Prunes,
The Dirtbombs,
Underground Resistance,
June Days,
Los Fastidios,
Roy Ayers,
Can,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mr. Review,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
MDC,
The Birthday Party,
Radio Birdman,
La Düsseldorf,
Bronski Beat,
Parry Music,
Young Marble Giants,
The Human League,
Throbbing Gristle,
Surgeon,
Monks,
Fatback Band,
Depeche Mode,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bauhaus,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Steve Hackett,
Ralphi Rosario,
Heaven 17,
Boogie Down Productions,
Neu!,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Stooges,
Anthony Braxton,
Talk Talk,
Sonny Sharrock,
In Retrospect,
Amon Düül II,
Urselle,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Swans,
Fat Boys,
Television Personalities,
The Invisible,
Warren Ellis,
Theoretical Girls,
Sexual Harrassment,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Lucky Dragons,
The Wake,
Icehouse,
Morten Harket,
Thompson Twins,
The Sound,
Kerrie Biddell,
World's Most,
Ultimate Spinach,
Motorama,
L. Decosne,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Deakin,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.