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 Paraguay and from Portland.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Second Layer to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Black Sheep. All the underground hits.
All Scan 7 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Smooth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 chamberlin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
The Knickerbockers,
Desert Stars,
Shoche,
Gang Green,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Excepter,
X-Ray Spex,
Robert Wyatt,
Talk Talk,
UT,
the Normal,
Motorama,
Eli Mardock,
Von Mondo,
Blancmange,
Joey Negro,
Symarip,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Piero Umiliani,
Faust,
Rhythm & Sound,
Roxy Music,
the Association,
Harry Pussy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Shadows of Knight,
Chris & Cosey,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Mission of Burma,
Alton Ellis,
Los Fastidios,
Cymande,
Colin Newman,
OOIOO,
Quadrant,
Slave,
Lightning Bolt,
Quantec,
Visage,
Khruangbin,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Bizarre Inc.,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Basic Channel,
The Stooges,
AZ,
Crispian St. Peters,
Amazonics,
Joe Smooth,
Bobby Sherman,
Joyce Sims,
DJ Style,
The Mummies,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Spandau Ballet,
Freddie Wadling,
Bronski Beat,
Public Image Ltd.,
Half Japanese,
Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill.
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.