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 Haiti and from Copenhagen.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Public Enemy to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Junior Murvin. All the underground hits.
All Letta Mbulu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Skaos 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Howard Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Detroit Cobras,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Ronnie Foster,
Deepchord,
Television,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
OOIOO,
8 Eyed Spy,
Eve St. Jones,
JFA,
Andrew Hill,
The Doors,
Robert Wyatt,
The Monochrome Set,
Aswad,
John Cale,
The Standells,
Robert Hood,
Rakim,
Aural Exciters,
the Swans,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Trumans Water,
Reagan Youth,
James White and The Blacks,
Donny Hathaway,
Harpers Bizarre,
ABC,
Lalann,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Smoke,
The Star Department,
Nick Fraelich,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Angels of Light,
The Move,
Babytalk,
John Holt,
Matthew Bourne,
Los Fastidios,
The Electric Prunes,
Joyce Sims,
Silicon Teens,
Stereo Dub,
Byron Stingily,
Technova,
Leonard Cohen,
Nik Kershaw,
the Human League,
Faust,
Faraquet,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Darondo,
Bang On A Can,
Eli Mardock,
Drive Like Jehu,
Masters at Work,
Ornette Coleman,
Hot Snakes,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Rufus Thomas,
Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar.
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.