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 Hungary and from Copenhagen.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 June Days to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Sonny Sharrock. All the underground hits.
All Negative Approach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tropical Tobacco record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minor Threat,
Camberwell Now,
Soft Machine,
Groovy Waters,
Donny Hathaway,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
MDC,
Wings,
Los Fastidios,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Tim Buckley,
Spoonie Gee,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Robert Wyatt,
OOIOO,
Mars,
The Move,
Drexciya,
Flipper,
Minny Pops,
Sex Pistols,
Sixth Finger,
Joe Smooth,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Arab on Radar,
Archie Shepp,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
New Order,
PIL,
The Leaves,
The Names,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Ultravox,
Lalann,
Jacques Brel,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sarah Menescal,
The Selecter,
Underground Resistance,
Aswad,
The Skatalites,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Reuben Wilson,
Crooked Eye,
Outsiders,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Wally Richardson,
The Pop Group,
CMW,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Nils Olav,
Make Up,
David Bowie,
Neil Young,
June Days,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Japan,
Bush Tetras,
Severed Heads,
Avey Tare,
the Sonics,
Technova, Technova, Technova, Technova.
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.