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 Chad and from Seoul.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the rap 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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Eden Ahbez tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chrome record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tom Boy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Marcia Griffiths,
Swell Maps,
Nick Fraelich,
JFA,
Desert Stars,
The Smiths,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Skatalites,
Minny Pops,
Bad Manners,
Model 500,
Deakin,
Siglo XX,
Alton Ellis,
The Moleskins,
Funkadelic,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Black Moon,
Sight & Sound,
Sex Pistols,
The Red Krayola,
The Standells,
The Kinks,
Supertramp,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Minutemen,
Zero Boys,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Intrusion,
The Toasters,
The Blackbyrds,
Blossom Toes,
MC5,
ABBA,
T. Rex,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Index,
Sugar Minott,
Simply Red,
China Crisis,
Jacob Miller,
Lungfish,
Flamin' Groovies,
Bobby Byrd,
The Doobie Brothers,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Monks,
The Fall,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Jandek,
Skarface,
Erasure,
Susan Cadogan,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Warren Ellis,
Monks,
Panda Bear,
The New Christs,
Accadde A,
Bush Tetras,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Gun Club,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.