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 Gabon and from Lagos.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Index to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Public Image Ltd.. All the underground hits.
All Todd Rundgren tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terrestrial Tones record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
Electric Prunes,
The Saints,
Robert Wyatt,
Mandrill,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Crispian St. Peters,
Severed Heads,
Sun City Girls,
Toni Rubio,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Malaria!,
Dual Sessions,
Los Fastidios,
Darondo,
Camberwell Now,
Make Up,
the Germs,
the Normal,
In Retrospect,
The Sonics,
FM Einheit,
The Offenders,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Television Personalities,
Second Layer,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Kinks,
Donny Hathaway,
The Searchers,
Andrew Hill,
Jacob Miller,
The Smiths,
Crispy Ambulance,
Zero Boys,
Lyres,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Deakin,
Joe Finger,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Pretty Things,
The Stooges,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cal Tjader,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Vogues,
Colin Newman,
Mantronix,
Jeru the Damaja,
Big Daddy Kane,
Charles Mingus,
Godley & Creme,
Marine Girls,
Sam Rivers,
Intrusion,
Radiopuhelimet,
Swell Maps,
Wolf Eyes,
The Fall,
The American Breed,
The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins.
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.