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 Turkey and from Philadelphia.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Arcadia to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Detroit Cobras. All the underground hits.
All Boogie Down Productions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Names 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ash Ra Tempel,
Goldenarms,
Accadde A,
Albert Ayler,
Trumans Water,
Brand Nubian,
Quantec,
Hashim,
Scrapy,
Massinfluence,
Little Man,
The Modern Lovers,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Gang Gang Dance,
Ornette Coleman,
Al Stewart,
Matthew Halsall,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Radiohead,
The Leaves,
Delon & Dalcan,
Tubeway Army,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Letta Mbulu,
Robert Hood,
Bobby Womack,
Jimmy McGriff,
Ken Boothe,
Susan Cadogan,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sugar Minott,
The Gun Club,
The Count Five,
The Monks,
Michelle Simonal,
the Bar-Kays,
Curtis Mayfield,
Derrick Morgan,
Morten Harket,
The Doobie Brothers,
Roxy Music,
Sonny Sharrock,
Parry Music,
The Angels of Light,
The Evens,
The Shadows of Knight,
Brothers Johnson,
Swell Maps,
Barbara Tucker,
Aural Exciters,
The Black Dice,
Banda Bassotti,
Mission of Burma,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lee Hazlewood,
Dorothy Ashby,
Warren Ellis,
John Cale,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Drexciya,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young.
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.