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 Argentina and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Black Moon to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Juan Atkins. All the underground hits.
All Average White Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agent Orange 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Flag,
Camouflage,
Alice Coltrane,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Country Teasers,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Warren Ellis,
Nik Kershaw,
Q and Not U,
The Cowsills,
The Moleskins,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Faust,
Liliput,
Stockholm Monsters,
Dennis Brown,
Peter & Gordon,
E-Dancer,
The Residents,
Morten Harket,
James White and The Blacks,
Bluetip,
The Human League,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Porter Ricks,
The Flesh Eaters,
Johnny Osbourne,
Symarip,
Susan Cadogan,
Bill Near,
Section 25,
The Leaves,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Fela Kuti,
Boz Scaggs,
Nils Olav,
Ludus,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Gil Scott Heron,
Mantronix,
The Blues Magoos,
The Kinks,
The Fire Engines,
Gang of Four,
Lungfish,
Malaria!,
The Walker Brothers,
Ituana,
PIL,
The Fall,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Al Stewart,
Khruangbin,
the Slits,
Eden Ahbez,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Davy DMX,
Animal Collective,
Lee Hazlewood,
Maurizio,
Sparks,
Funky Four + One,
Urselle,
Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron.
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.