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 Jamaica and from Shanghai.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Mummies to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All 10cc tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
Khruangbin,
Dennis Brown,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Robert Görl,
Piero Umiliani,
Crispian St. Peters,
Kas Product,
Nirvana,
Neil Young,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sugar Minott,
Girls At Our Best!,
Funky Four + One,
New York Dolls,
Brick,
Stereo Dub,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Fortunes,
Organ,
Johnny Osbourne,
Erasure,
Gil Scott Heron,
Trumans Water,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Echospace,
Bobby Byrd,
Vladislav Delay,
Animal Collective,
Black Pus,
Jeru the Damaja,
Junior Murvin,
Talk Talk,
The American Breed,
Ossler,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The United States of America,
Ten City,
Isaac Hayes,
Byron Stingily,
Electric Prunes,
Bad Manners,
Rosa Yemen,
Boredoms,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Monks,
Letta Mbulu,
Cymande,
Fad Gadget,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Main Source,
Mary Jane Girls,
Section 25,
Absolute Body Control,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Soulsonic Force,
Suburban Knight,
The Dave Clark Five,
Cal Tjader,
The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter.
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.