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 Iraq and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Bush Tetras to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Flag 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Judy Mowatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cymande,
Arthur Verocai,
Porter Ricks,
Anthony Braxton,
Boz Scaggs,
The Dave Clark Five,
Ponytail,
T. Rex,
Zapp,
Kevin Saunderson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
B.T. Express,
Drive Like Jehu,
Drexciya,
Barry Ungar,
the Human League,
Sonny Sharrock,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
OOIOO,
Ossler,
Second Layer,
Fugazi,
Marshall Jefferson,
Terry Callier,
The Black Dice,
Pere Ubu,
The Skatalites,
Dawn Penn,
Judy Mowatt,
La Düsseldorf,
The Smoke,
Unrelated Segments,
Q65,
Pierre Henry,
The Knickerbockers,
Rites of Spring,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Cluster,
The Young Rascals,
Gastr Del Sol,
Yellowson,
Maurizio,
Subhumans,
Crime,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ronnie Foster,
Saccharine Trust,
Dennis Brown,
Todd Terry,
The Neon Judgement,
One Last Wish,
Model 500,
The Searchers,
Tubeway Army,
The Evens,
Inner City, Inner City, Inner City, Inner City.
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.