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 Armenia and from Mexico City.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 The Chocolate Watch Band to the crunk 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All The Count Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Move 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Todd Rundgren,
Bill Near,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Glambeats Corp.,
Television,
Country Teasers,
Outsiders,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Swell Maps,
Rufus Thomas,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Skatalites,
The Motions,
Spoonie Gee,
The Remains,
Kerrie Biddell,
Yusef Lateef,
Ponytail,
Cameo,
Joe Smooth,
Malaria!,
Porter Ricks,
B.T. Express,
Rakim,
Dead Boys,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Duran Duran,
Gichy Dan,
Soulsonic Force,
Ken Boothe,
Man Parrish,
Eve St. Jones,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The J.B.'s,
PIL,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Reuben Wilson,
Nas,
Erykah Badu,
Thompson Twins,
Prince Buster,
Bobby Hutcherson,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Aloha Tigers,
Easy Going,
JFA,
48th St. Collective,
John Lydon,
Desert Stars,
Barclay James Harvest,
Iggy Pop,
Bobby Sherman,
Bob Dylan,
Erasure,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Susan Cadogan,
Loose Ends,
the Bar-Kays,
Soft Machine,
The Cramps,
the Sonics,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.