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 Israel 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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 oboe 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 8 Eyed Spy to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Radiohead. All the underground hits.
All Brick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lightning Bolt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Trumans Water,
Theoretical Girls,
Smog,
The Barracudas,
Jacob Miller,
The Standells,
Schoolly D,
Agitation Free,
The Martian,
The Buckinghams,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Scion,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Fuzztones,
the Association,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Quando Quango,
Q and Not U,
Minutemen,
Thee Headcoats,
Barclay James Harvest,
EPMD,
Reuben Wilson,
Rhythm & Sound,
Delta 5,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sarah Menescal,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Neon Judgement,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Index,
Todd Rundgren,
Fela Kuti,
The Tremeloes,
Duran Duran,
Mandrill,
A Certain Ratio,
Siglo XX,
Suburban Knight,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Bush Tetras,
The Pretty Things,
Faust,
John Lydon,
Magazine,
Nils Olav,
Pierre Henry,
Ken Boothe,
Sixth Finger,
Vladislav Delay,
Donny Hathaway,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Mantronix,
Slick Rick,
The Blackbyrds,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Idris Muhammad,
Agent Orange,
Maurizio,
Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget.
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.