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 Burkina and from New York.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 the Association to the jazz 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 Blancmange. All the underground hits.
All Sarah Menescal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sam Rivers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sandy B record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barbara Tucker,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Swell Maps,
Peter and Kerry,
Camouflage,
Todd Rundgren,
Black Moon,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Unrelated Segments,
The Monks,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Alice Coltrane,
Howard Jones,
Bronski Beat,
Gichy Dan,
The Raincoats,
Johnny Clarke,
Peter & Gordon,
the Human League,
Sixth Finger,
Vainqueur,
Aural Exciters,
Big Daddy Kane,
Anthony Braxton,
Nik Kershaw,
Man Eating Sloth,
Soul II Soul,
Isaac Hayes,
Harry Pussy,
Scratch Acid,
The Busters,
Wings,
Nick Fraelich,
Harmonia,
Black Flag,
Can,
Bobby Womack,
Hoover,
Gerry Rafferty,
the Bar-Kays,
Judy Mowatt,
Pharoah Sanders,
Severed Heads,
Joe Smooth,
E-Dancer,
World's Most,
Heaven 17,
Con Funk Shun,
Barrington Levy,
The Walker Brothers,
Steve Hackett,
Quadrant,
The Vogues,
The Sound,
One Last Wish,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
PIL,
Erykah Badu,
La Düsseldorf,
Radiopuhelimet,
X-Ray Spex,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers.
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.