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 Jamaica and from London.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 Michael McDonald 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 Bill Wells to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Tropical Tobacco. All the underground hits.
All Roxy Music tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Model 500 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a It's A Beautiful Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Kayak,
Kevin Saunderson,
Ornette Coleman,
Traffic Nightmare,
Chris Corsano,
The Tremeloes,
Slick Rick,
The Smoke,
the Swans,
Minny Pops,
CMW,
Dawn Penn,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Das Ding,
Johnny Clarke,
Interpol,
Mad Mike,
Toni Rubio,
Tom Boy,
the Soft Cell,
Joey Negro,
Au Pairs,
Sarah Menescal,
Derrick Morgan,
The Sonics,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Symarip,
The American Breed,
Big Daddy Kane,
Thee Headcoats,
Black Moon,
Sonny Sharrock,
Terry Callier,
Hasil Adkins,
Reagan Youth,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Swell Maps,
Index,
Cluster,
Intrusion,
Ronnie Foster,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Kenny Larkin,
Niagra,
Rod Modell,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Soft Cell,
The Index,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Happenings,
Surgeon,
Joy Division,
The Electric Prunes,
Black Sheep,
Guru Guru,
Boz Scaggs,
Funky Four + One,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Barracudas,
Laurel Aitken,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.