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 Palau 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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tehran.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Ponytail to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Marcia Griffiths. All the underground hits.
All Ken Boothe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Green 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lyres record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Halsall,
48th St. Collective,
Scion,
Idris Muhammad,
The Last Poets,
Johnny Clarke,
Carl Craig,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Curtis Mayfield,
Shoche,
Gerry Rafferty,
Swell Maps,
Sister Nancy,
The Velvet Underground,
Faraquet,
The Durutti Column,
Rotary Connection,
The Flesh Eaters,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Joey Negro,
Rapeman,
Joyce Sims,
Tim Buckley,
Echospace,
Franke,
Lyres,
Los Fastidios,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
the Germs,
Essential Logic,
The Sound,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Urselle,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Don Cherry,
Ultra Naté,
Robert Wyatt,
Agent Orange,
The Happenings,
Wire,
Erasure,
Angry Samoans,
The Index,
In Retrospect,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Amon Düül,
Pussy Galore,
Can,
Roger Hodgson,
Pantaleimon,
Hardrive,
Colin Newman,
Janne Schatter,
Alice Coltrane,
Lou Christie,
A Certain Ratio,
CMW,
Hot Snakes,
John Foxx, John Foxx, John Foxx, John Foxx.
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.