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 Togo and from Mumbai.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 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 Girls At Our Best! to the disco 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All The Doobie Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ludus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marc Almond record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fela Kuti,
Eric Dolphy,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Cecil Taylor,
Suburban Knight,
Eric Copeland,
The Buckinghams,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Wake,
Wally Richardson,
The Kinks,
Animal Collective,
PIL,
Delta 5,
Saccharine Trust,
The Mojo Men,
Moby Grape,
Kerri Chandler,
Little Man,
The Skatalites,
Dark Day,
John Foxx,
Man Parrish,
Metal Thangz,
Schoolly D,
The Vogues,
Simply Red,
Curtis Mayfield,
Nas,
Outsiders,
Stetsasonic,
Silicon Teens,
Roger Hodgson,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Slits,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Bush Tetras,
Wolf Eyes,
Lalo Schifrin,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
DNA,
New York Dolls,
Toni Rubio,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Can,
Erasure,
Sonic Youth,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Goldenarms,
The Neon Judgement,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Crooked Eye,
Lindisfarne,
Altered Images,
Cheater Slicks,
One Last Wish,
E-Dancer,
Davy DMX,
Gong,
Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox.
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.