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 Papua New Guinea and from Manila.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Marmalade to the crunk 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 Siouxsie and the Banshees. All the underground hits.
All Gabor Szabo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every L. Decosne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sight & Sound,
The United States of America,
Robert Hood,
Pulsallama,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Jimmy McGriff,
Mission of Burma,
Surgeon,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Excepter,
Animal Collective,
David McCallum,
Wings,
Franke,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Black Flag,
The Fugs,
Big Daddy Kane,
Yazoo,
One Last Wish,
Rosa Yemen,
Flash Fearless,
Susan Cadogan,
The Smiths,
Scott Walker,
Jeff Lynne,
Dennis Brown,
Sixth Finger,
Max Romeo,
the Swans,
Minnie Riperton,
Scientists,
Mantronix,
Quantec,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Pretty Things,
The Grass Roots,
Marmalade,
The Sound,
R.M.O.,
Little Man,
Silicon Teens,
ABC,
Swell Maps,
the Sonics,
Boredoms,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Davy DMX,
Royal Trux,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Mark Hollis,
Godley & Creme,
Kenny Larkin,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Zeros,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Skaos,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Residents, The Residents, The Residents, The Residents.
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.