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 Uganda and from Bologna.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 KRS-One to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Lindisfarne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultravox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABBA,
LL Cool J,
Fifty Foot Hose,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Fugazi,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Lou Reed,
Roxy Music,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Monolake,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Funkadelic,
John Foxx,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Can,
Subhumans,
The Doors,
Malaria!,
Bobby Byrd,
Derrick May,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Mission of Burma,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Charles Mingus,
The Litter,
The Neon Judgement,
Moebius,
China Crisis,
Y Pants,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Schoolly D,
Panda Bear,
The Buckinghams,
Lindisfarne,
Von Mondo,
Eric B and Rakim,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Ultra Naté,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Young Rascals,
Brand Nubian,
Hoover,
Alton Ellis,
Eurythmics,
Cybotron,
Kaleidoscope,
The Tremeloes,
Donny Hathaway,
Bill Wells,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Robert Görl,
Gastr Del Sol,
Cheater Slicks,
Fear,
Boredoms,
This Heat,
Suburban Knight,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Archie Shepp,
Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru.
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.