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 Malawi and from Accra.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 theremin 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 8 Eyed Spy to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Peanut Butter Conspiracy. All the underground hits.
All Suicide tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nils Olav record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an arpeggiator and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hoover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Popol Vuh,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Echospace,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rites of Spring,
The Count Five,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Suburban Knight,
Idris Muhammad,
David McCallum,
Easy Going,
Swell Maps,
The Names,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
X-102,
Camberwell Now,
Sandy B,
Kas Product,
the Swans,
Delta 5,
Index,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Stooges,
Scrapy,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Animal Collective,
Man Eating Sloth,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
U.S. Maple,
Magazine,
The Cramps,
Harry Pussy,
Eli Mardock,
Main Source,
Nation of Ulysses,
Godley & Creme,
The Mojo Men,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Boredoms,
La Düsseldorf,
Television,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Minutemen,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Walker Brothers,
The Invisible,
Tim Buckley,
Davy DMX,
Inner City,
Sound Behaviour,
The Leaves,
Shoche,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Searchers,
Saccharine Trust,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pole,
The Knickerbockers,
The Remains, The Remains, The Remains, The Remains.
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.