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 Shanghai.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 clarinet 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 Subhumans to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Scientists. All the underground hits.
All Prince Buster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hoover record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sex Pistols record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yusef Lateef,
Davy DMX,
The Fuzztones,
The Wake,
Althea and Donna,
The Gap Band,
Electric Prunes,
Todd Terry,
Bill Wells,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Harpers Bizarre,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Youth Brigade,
Bootsy Collins,
Ultravox,
The Trojans,
The Blackbyrds,
Inner City,
AZ,
Surgeon,
Scion,
Marmalade,
Massinfluence,
Archie Shepp,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Tremeloes,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Moody Blues,
The Gladiators,
Fluxion,
Con Funk Shun,
Zero Boys,
Erykah Badu,
Flash Fearless,
Magma,
Hardrive,
Section 25,
ABBA,
Brand Nubian,
The Saints,
Iggy Pop,
Babytalk,
Cybotron,
Hoover,
Wolf Eyes,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sarah Menescal,
Bauhaus,
Accadde A,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
the Normal,
Barbara Tucker,
PIL,
Gong,
The Kinks,
Khruangbin,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Pagans,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs.
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.