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 Macedonia and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 808 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 The Flesh Eaters to the disco 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 Pole. All the underground hits.
All The Cowsills tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hot Snakes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 mellotron and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
KRS-One,
Vladislav Delay,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Fear,
Sound Behaviour,
Tubeway Army,
The Smiths,
Qualms,
DJ Style,
Joyce Sims,
Scratch Acid,
Soulsonic Force,
Sugar Minott,
Blancmange,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Leonard Cohen,
The Count Five,
Hashim,
Fad Gadget,
Outsiders,
Be Bop Deluxe,
the Soft Cell,
The Move,
Arcadia,
Ken Boothe,
Piero Umiliani,
Loose Ends,
Ice-T,
Sam Rivers,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Make Up,
Sixth Finger,
The Trojans,
Cal Tjader,
Don Cherry,
The J.B.'s,
Derrick Morgan,
Technova,
Agent Orange,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Shuggie Otis,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Public Image Ltd.,
Roger Hodgson,
The Golliwogs,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Moody Blues,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
EPMD,
Electric Prunes,
Procol Harum,
Banda Bassotti,
Pharoah Sanders,
Tropical Tobacco,
Mad Mike,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Joe Finger,
Slick Rick,
The Barracudas,
Tomorrow,
The Kinks,
Lindisfarne,
Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail.
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.