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 Liechtenstein and from Portland.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 Fear to the grime kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Q65 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Detroit Cobras record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gun Club record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fat Boys,
Dorothy Ashby,
ABC,
Desert Stars,
The Skatalites,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Q65,
Essential Logic,
Man Eating Sloth,
Easy Going,
Faust,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Doors,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Aswad,
Black Bananas,
Joyce Sims,
The Fortunes,
Kool Moe Dee,
Loose Ends,
The Evens,
A Certain Ratio,
Leonard Cohen,
Animal Collective,
Joy Division,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cameo,
Erasure,
World's Most,
The Victims,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The New Christs,
John Lydon,
Ultravox,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Slackers,
Stereo Dub,
Unwound,
Ice-T,
Deakin,
Lower 48,
John Foxx,
Ultra Naté,
Mantronix,
Porter Ricks,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Althea and Donna,
Neil Young,
The Gun Club,
The Sonics,
The Tremeloes,
Mandrill,
Max Romeo,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Kinks,
James White and The Blacks,
Royal Trux,
China Crisis,
Wire,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.