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 Paris.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Bronski Beat to the dance 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 Wasted Youth. All the underground hits.
All Pere Ubu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gerry Rafferty record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-Ray Spex,
Brothers Johnson,
Joyce Sims,
Hoover,
Blossom Toes,
Aural Exciters,
John Cale,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Sam Rivers,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Sugar Minott,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Searchers,
The Modern Lovers,
The Flesh Eaters,
Radiohead,
K-Klass,
Arab on Radar,
Magazine,
Harpers Bizarre,
Susan Cadogan,
This Heat,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Jeff Lynne,
New Order,
Johnny Osbourne,
Banda Bassotti,
The Leaves,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Second Layer,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Music Machine,
The Electric Prunes,
the Human League,
Fugazi,
The Fall,
Bauhaus,
Donny Hathaway,
Roger Hodgson,
David Bowie,
The Standells,
John Lydon,
The Litter,
Fad Gadget,
The Associates,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Fortunes,
The Barracudas,
The Buckinghams,
Bobby Sherman,
Stereo Dub,
The Red Krayola,
The Dead C,
Byron Stingily,
Fear,
The Gladiators,
Malaria!,
Quando Quango,
Black Sheep,
The Fuzztones,
OOIOO,
Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus.
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.