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 Nauru and from Delhi.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Dorothy Ashby to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Josef K. All the underground hits.
All Alison Limerick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sparks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 a clarinet and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Moody Blues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Young Marble Giants,
The Seeds,
Swans,
Mary Jane Girls,
Drive Like Jehu,
Marmalade,
Blancmange,
B.T. Express,
New Age Steppers,
The Star Department,
Hoover,
Throbbing Gristle,
This Heat,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
JFA,
Radiohead,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Archie Shepp,
Stiv Bators,
Glambeats Corp.,
Funkadelic,
Gichy Dan,
Tim Buckley,
Lightning Bolt,
Scratch Acid,
D'Angelo,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Unwound,
The Gap Band,
Crash Course in Science,
Soft Cell,
Whodini,
The Monochrome Set,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jerry's Kids,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pylon,
Idris Muhammad,
10cc,
The Litter,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sugar Minott,
Eden Ahbez,
Crispy Ambulance,
In Retrospect,
Television,
Schoolly D,
The Cowsills,
Cluster,
Prince Buster,
Vainqueur,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Pulsallama,
Neu!,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Severed Heads,
Y Pants,
Robert Görl,
Simply Red,
the Soft Cell,
The Gladiators,
Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu.
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.