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 Mali and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Fire Engines to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Neon Judgement. All the underground hits.
All Yellowson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Associates record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Age Steppers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
John Lydon,
The Walker Brothers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Duran Duran,
Infiniti,
Das Ding,
Slick Rick,
Ralphi Rosario,
Bobby Sherman,
Juan Atkins,
The Five Americans,
Carl Craig,
H. Thieme,
Jandek,
ABC,
Leonard Cohen,
Liliput,
The Dirtbombs,
The Smoke,
Unwound,
the Bar-Kays,
Darondo,
Ossler,
The Star Department,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
DNA,
Ornette Coleman,
Johnny Clarke,
Hasil Adkins,
Scion,
The Gladiators,
The Mojo Men,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Raincoats,
Dual Sessions,
Jacques Brel,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Angry Samoans,
Cecil Taylor,
Aswad,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Jerry's Kids,
Pet Shop Boys,
John Holt,
Scratch Acid,
Neu!,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Index,
Altered Images,
Prince Buster,
Yellowson,
Basic Channel,
The Victims,
Brothers Johnson,
Second Layer,
Arthur Verocai,
Porter Ricks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ken Boothe,
Depeche Mode,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.