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 Guinea-Bissau and from Hong Kong.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Columbus.
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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Curtis Mayfield to the techno 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 Strawberry Alarm Clock. All the underground hits.
All Matthew Bourne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Icehouse record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Wells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rhythm & Sound,
Urselle,
Whodini,
Sight & Sound,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Yusef Lateef,
Kaleidoscope,
Scrapy,
The Zeros,
Crime,
The Human League,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
In Retrospect,
The Blackbyrds,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Wake,
The Leaves,
Bill Wells,
Chrome,
Don Cherry,
Gichy Dan,
DJ Sneak,
Rekid,
Blossom Toes,
Easy Going,
The Move,
Tubeway Army,
Funkadelic,
Ultimate Spinach,
Man Parrish,
Altered Images,
Leonard Cohen,
The Associates,
Arcadia,
Patti Smith,
Pole,
8 Eyed Spy,
Graham Central Station,
Section 25,
Banda Bassotti,
The Searchers,
Duran Duran,
Fatback Band,
Eric Dolphy,
Basic Channel,
Lalann,
Technova,
Wasted Youth,
Franke,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Beau Brummels,
Camouflage,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Slits,
the Slits,
Negative Approach,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
ABC,
Procol Harum,
June of 44,
Jeru the Damaja,
Amon Düül II,
Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye.
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.