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 Comoros and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Erasure to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kurtis Blow 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bronski Beat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
Saccharine Trust,
Sister Nancy,
Derrick Morgan,
Prince Buster,
Surgeon,
Carl Craig,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bronski Beat,
Gang Green,
Deadbeat,
Jeru the Damaja,
Rod Modell,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Infiniti,
Crash Course in Science,
China Crisis,
These Immortal Souls,
Clear Light,
Depeche Mode,
the Bar-Kays,
Mark Hollis,
Leonard Cohen,
Camberwell Now,
X-102,
Marcia Griffiths,
Silicon Teens,
Das Ding,
Deakin,
Lucky Dragons,
the Germs,
One Last Wish,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Malaria!,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Patti Smith,
Sixth Finger,
Radiopuhelimet,
Flipper,
Dead Boys,
Boz Scaggs,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Mummies,
Barry Ungar,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Camouflage,
Bauhaus,
Loose Ends,
The Gap Band,
Crispy Ambulance,
Junior Murvin,
Goldenarms,
Skarface,
The Detroit Cobras,
Albert Ayler,
Kaleidoscope,
Audionom,
Yellowson,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Move,
Funkadelic,
Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson, Marshall Jefferson.
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.