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 Djibouti and from Jakarta.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 harpsichord 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 Icehouse to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Jacob Miller. All the underground hits.
All Delta 5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rod Modell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator 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 marimba and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nation of Ulysses,
Animal Collective,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Dead Boys,
Charles Mingus,
The Fall,
Josef K,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Mojo Men,
Jandek,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Nas,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lee Hazlewood,
Smog,
Sarah Menescal,
Marcia Griffiths,
Niagra,
Ultra Naté,
Man Parrish,
Jeru the Damaja,
Alison Limerick,
Dawn Penn,
Derrick May,
Ituana,
La Düsseldorf,
Stiv Bators,
Camberwell Now,
The Selecter,
Lalo Schifrin,
Country Joe & The Fish,
OOIOO,
Gang of Four,
The Names,
Soul Sonic Force,
Angry Samoans,
Outsiders,
cv313,
The Pop Group,
Maurizio,
The Monks,
Junior Murvin,
Cheater Slicks,
Cymande,
Dennis Brown,
the Soft Cell,
Circle Jerks,
Sonny Sharrock,
Adolescents,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Rotary Connection,
The Five Americans,
Television,
Rakim,
Tim Buckley,
Pylon,
T.S.O.L.,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Black Bananas,
the Slits,
Scrapy,
Sugar Minott,
The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas.
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.