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 Kiribati and from Glasgow.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 chamberlin 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 Gian Franco Pienzio to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Andrew Hill. All the underground hits.
All In Retrospect tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rapeman 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Mummies record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Normal,
The Barracudas,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Sugar Minott,
Quando Quango,
OOIOO,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Marine Girls,
Tim Buckley,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Trumans Water,
Althea and Donna,
Derrick May,
Connie Case,
Mission of Burma,
Crash Course in Science,
Hasil Adkins,
Easy Going,
Nation of Ulysses,
Deakin,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sun Ra,
Lindisfarne,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Smiths,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Cluster,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Hoover,
the Bar-Kays,
Black Flag,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Popol Vuh,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Barrington Levy,
Bobby Sherman,
Alice Coltrane,
Blancmange,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Grauzone,
Marvin Gaye,
Excepter,
EPMD,
DJ Sneak,
Angry Samoans,
Piero Umiliani,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Circle Jerks,
Lalo Schifrin,
Todd Terry,
Ituana,
the Sonics,
Franke,
The Misunderstood,
The Dirtbombs,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Scrapy,
Soul Sonic Force,
Kayak,
Metal Thangz,
Rites of Spring,
Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin.
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.