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 Mali and from Lagos.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 David Bowie 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 Erasure to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Easy Going. All the underground hits.
All Rotary Connection tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Zeros record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Josef K,
The Knickerbockers,
Fat Boys,
Aswad,
The Cramps,
David McCallum,
Moebius,
Tomorrow,
Sandy B,
Blake Baxter,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Surgeon,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Dave Gahan,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Warsaw,
Sex Pistols,
Bob Dylan,
Stiv Bators,
Jeru the Damaja,
Simply Red,
Harmonia,
Cluster,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Blancmange,
The Flesh Eaters,
Sonic Youth,
Smog,
Minor Threat,
Tom Boy,
Ituana,
Zapp,
Gang Green,
Dorothy Ashby,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Golliwogs,
Jesper Dahlback,
Circle Jerks,
Blossom Toes,
Unrelated Segments,
Icehouse,
Terry Callier,
Fatback Band,
Q and Not U,
Visage,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Joyce Sims,
Throbbing Gristle,
Darondo,
Yusef Lateef,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Brass Construction,
The Electric Prunes,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Smiths,
Duran Duran,
Lebanon Hanover,
Scratch Acid,
Eden Ahbez,
Joy Division,
Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks.
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.