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 Zambia and from Sao Paulo.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Deadbeat to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 a-ha. All the underground hits.
All Soul Sonic Force tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Strawberry Alarm Clock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Unwound,
Joy Division,
The Cramps,
Steve Hackett,
The Searchers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Warsaw,
FM Einheit,
The Fuzztones,
Kaleidoscope,
Graham Central Station,
Oneida,
David Axelrod,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Residents,
Nils Olav,
The Blackbyrds,
Gabor Szabo,
Surgeon,
Delon & Dalcan,
Tubeway Army,
Infiniti,
Gang of Four,
The Mojo Men,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
X-Ray Spex,
The Skatalites,
Quantec,
The Tremeloes,
Slave,
Quando Quango,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Five Americans,
Dorothy Ashby,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Bronski Beat,
Harry Pussy,
Bootsy Collins,
Althea and Donna,
The Barracudas,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Second Layer,
Kerri Chandler,
Intrusion,
Gang Gang Dance,
Don Cherry,
the Sonics,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Sonics,
Lungfish,
Accadde A,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Anthony Braxton,
Sonny Sharrock,
Mark Hollis,
Eric Copeland,
The Young Rascals,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mo-Dettes,
Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore.
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.