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 Poland and from Mexico City.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the guitar 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the grime kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All The Human League tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Idris Muhammad record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Swell Maps,
Skriet,
Tom Boy,
The Evens,
Drive Like Jehu,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Neu!,
Judy Mowatt,
Flamin' Groovies,
Sam Rivers,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Flash Fearless,
Agent Orange,
Ohio Players,
Man Eating Sloth,
Robert Hood,
Marine Girls,
Bill Wells,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Invisible,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Gap Band,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Fatback Band,
John Coltrane,
Von Mondo,
Cal Tjader,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
the Fania All-Stars,
Easy Going,
Derrick May,
John Foxx,
The Gladiators,
James White and The Blacks,
Kas Product,
Rosa Yemen,
Icehouse,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
David Axelrod,
Sound Behaviour,
Warsaw,
Byron Stingily,
Moebius,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Alarm Clocks,
Aaron Thompson,
Harpers Bizarre,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Tremeloes,
Neil Young,
The Birthday Party,
Infiniti,
cv313,
Little Man,
Minnie Riperton,
Quando Quango,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Crooked Eye,
Idris Muhammad,
Unrelated Segments,
The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks.
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.