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 Iceland and from Mumbai.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the theremin 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 Black Sheep to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Index. All the underground hits.
All 8 Eyed Spy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terrestrial Tones record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Intrusion,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Big Daddy Kane,
China Crisis,
Piero Umiliani,
Amazonics,
David Axelrod,
Eddi Front,
Kerrie Biddell,
The United States of America,
Morten Harket,
Sonny Sharrock,
Royal Trux,
Rotary Connection,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rosa Yemen,
Reuben Wilson,
Lower 48,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Alarm Clocks,
Rufus Thomas,
Hasil Adkins,
Electric Prunes,
The Gories,
Derrick May,
Stockholm Monsters,
Donny Hathaway,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Cramps,
Archie Shepp,
Boz Scaggs,
Fat Boys,
Symarip,
Young Marble Giants,
The Leaves,
the Soft Cell,
Q and Not U,
Cameo,
Avey Tare,
a-ha,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Dead C,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Cheater Slicks,
The Last Poets,
Erykah Badu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Laurel Aitken,
Warren Ellis,
The Associates,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Crash Course in Science,
Tres Demented,
Matthew Halsall,
Ossler,
Lungfish,
Gil Scott Heron,
Ultravox,
The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers.
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.