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 Malta and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Minny Pops to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Terry Callier. All the underground hits.
All Nils Olav tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Monks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
E-Dancer,
Model 500,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Radiopuhelimet,
Swans,
Amazonics,
Easy Going,
Eli Mardock,
Sarah Menescal,
Tom Boy,
Cecil Taylor,
John Holt,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Suburban Knight,
Nation of Ulysses,
X-Ray Spex,
The Sound,
Dark Day,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ronan,
Dawn Penn,
Pet Shop Boys,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Black Sheep,
Blake Baxter,
The Real Kids,
Connie Case,
Robert Hood,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Ornette Coleman,
Sight & Sound,
Niagra,
Mad Mike,
Scratch Acid,
Funkadelic,
10cc,
Wire,
Josef K,
Colin Newman,
Wasted Youth,
Swell Maps,
New Age Steppers,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Robert Wyatt,
Alton Ellis,
Sex Pistols,
Johnny Clarke,
Danielle Patucci,
The Knickerbockers,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Anakelly,
48th St. Collective,
Joey Negro,
MDC,
Funky Four + One,
Dennis Brown,
China Crisis,
Jeru the Damaja,
Soul II Soul,
Charles Mingus,
Ultravox,
Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon.
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.