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 Moldova and from Halifax.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Paris.
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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 X-Ray Spex to the grunge 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 Soul Sonic Force. All the underground hits.
All Thee Headcoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every 8 Eyed Spy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brass Construction record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aloha Tigers,
B.T. Express,
Jacob Miller,
Surgeon,
Brick,
Fugazi,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Big Daddy Kane,
Derrick Morgan,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Black Flag,
John Foxx,
Fad Gadget,
Ralphi Rosario,
Flamin' Groovies,
Blake Baxter,
New Order,
Fela Kuti,
Yusef Lateef,
Joy Division,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Black Dice,
Audionom,
Dark Day,
Underground Resistance,
Camberwell Now,
Albert Ayler,
Lucky Dragons,
a-ha,
Joe Smooth,
Mo-Dettes,
Angry Samoans,
Neil Young,
Johnny Osbourne,
Robert Görl,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gong,
Stereo Dub,
Young Marble Giants,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Cramps,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
the Human League,
Sun Ra,
Babytalk,
John Coltrane,
Sam Rivers,
The Residents,
Rufus Thomas,
Nation of Ulysses,
Can,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Beau Brummels,
Kayak,
Popol Vuh,
EPMD,
Banda Bassotti,
The Gap Band,
Los Fastidios,
The Fall,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.