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 Mali and from Lille.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 spring reverb 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 The Birthday Party to the grunge 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 R.M.O.. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Angels of Light 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a U.S. Maple record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Model 500,
Ultimate Spinach,
Underground Resistance,
Albert Ayler,
Gang Gang Dance,
Arab on Radar,
Lower 48,
The Fire Engines,
Sister Nancy,
Jacob Miller,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Delta 5,
The Doors,
Ronnie Foster,
the Bar-Kays,
The Barracudas,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Massinfluence,
Bronski Beat,
the Swans,
Jeff Lynne,
Nick Fraelich,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Carl Craig,
Warren Ellis,
The Leaves,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Real Kids,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
La Düsseldorf,
Flipper,
Oneida,
Q and Not U,
Accadde A,
The Cowsills,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Country Teasers,
The Toasters,
Yellowson,
Moby Grape,
Angry Samoans,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Cheater Slicks,
Alphaville,
The Dead C,
New Order,
The Remains,
Chris & Cosey,
Johnny Osbourne,
the Human League,
Joe Finger,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Quantec,
Susan Cadogan,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Raincoats,
The Fugs,
Grandmaster Flash,
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana.
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.