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 Croatia and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 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 Patti Smith to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Althea and Donna. All the underground hits.
All AZ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Evens 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wasted Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anthony Braxton,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Ultimate Spinach,
Scrapy,
Bronski Beat,
Scott Walker,
the Germs,
Mars,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Cramps,
Prince Buster,
Big Daddy Kane,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Knickerbockers,
Pylon,
Gang Green,
Vainqueur,
Drive Like Jehu,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Joensuu 1685,
Malaria!,
Lee Hazlewood,
Babytalk,
The New Christs,
Henry Cow,
Slave,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Hashim,
U.S. Maple,
The Zeros,
The Remains,
Boogie Down Productions,
Boz Scaggs,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
China Crisis,
David McCallum,
Kas Product,
Gregory Isaacs,
Rosa Yemen,
Jeff Mills,
The Busters,
Desert Stars,
Eddi Front,
Ice-T,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Fuzztones,
The Fire Engines,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Sound Behaviour,
Porter Ricks,
Mission of Burma,
Alice Coltrane,
The Move,
Stereo Dub,
Chris Corsano,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Cecil Taylor,
The Star Department,
Eric Copeland,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.