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 Kazakhstan and from Accra.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Organ to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. All the underground hits.
All Jeff Mills tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Y Pants 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Art Ensemble Of Chicago record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Busters,
Letta Mbulu,
Radio Birdman,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
8 Eyed Spy,
Public Enemy,
The Sound,
Suicide,
Skarface,
This Heat,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Roy Ayers,
Terrestrial Tones,
Buzzcocks,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Half Japanese,
The Count Five,
Swell Maps,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Black Sheep,
Suburban Knight,
John Lydon,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Q and Not U,
Sex Pistols,
The Fuzztones,
Marc Almond,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Kenny Larkin,
Public Image Ltd.,
Kaleidoscope,
Excepter,
Radiohead,
Wings,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Oblivians,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Barracudas,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Residents,
a-ha,
Bronski Beat,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Fania All-Stars,
KRS-One,
Intrusion,
World's Most,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The J.B.'s,
Delta 5,
Maleditus Sound,
Main Source,
Sister Nancy,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Harmonia,
R.M.O.,
Carl Craig,
John Holt,
The Cramps,
The Associates,
Adolescents,
Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman.
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.