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 Malawi and from Tehran.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Paris.
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 synthesizer 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 D'Angelo to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fela Kuti. All the underground hits.
All Sandy B tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Happenings record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mission of Burma record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Das Ding,
Cybotron,
Tom Boy,
Jimmy McGriff,
Boogie Down Productions,
Malaria!,
Livin' Joy,
Index,
Chrome,
Letta Mbulu,
MC5,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Bill Near,
Eric Dolphy,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Symarip,
Mary Jane Girls,
Ituana,
Model 500,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Music Machine,
Neil Young,
The Move,
Warren Ellis,
Vladislav Delay,
The Electric Prunes,
Delon & Dalcan,
Audionom,
Ponytail,
Kenny Larkin,
Danielle Patucci,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Darondo,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Alton Ellis,
Sound Behaviour,
Joy Division,
Thompson Twins,
Brass Construction,
The Blues Magoos,
Jeff Mills,
Little Man,
U.S. Maple,
Reuben Wilson,
Soul II Soul,
Terrestrial Tones,
Unrelated Segments,
Sugar Minott,
Tomorrow,
The Walker Brothers,
the Bar-Kays,
The Knickerbockers,
The Beau Brummels,
The Doors,
Reagan Youth,
Pagans,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
David Axelrod,
Ash Ra Tempel,
MDC,
Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Rufus Thomas.
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.