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 Rwanda and from Paris.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 chamberlin 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 In Retrospect to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Lou Christie. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Byrd tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tears for Fears record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Mummies,
A Certain Ratio,
Flash Fearless,
John Lydon,
Drive Like Jehu,
Unrelated Segments,
Massinfluence,
Duran Duran,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Roxy Music,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Slackers,
La Düsseldorf,
The Knickerbockers,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Crime,
Fatback Band,
Mr. Review,
Kerrie Biddell,
Byron Stingily,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Martian,
Harmonia,
The Evens,
Arab on Radar,
Simply Red,
Los Fastidios,
Fat Boys,
The Happenings,
T. Rex,
The Saints,
The Seeds,
Blancmange,
The Five Americans,
Deepchord,
Swell Maps,
Theoretical Girls,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Beau Brummels,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Camouflage,
Banda Bassotti,
Monolake,
Todd Rundgren,
Supertramp,
Robert Wyatt,
Max Romeo,
Average White Band,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Misunderstood,
Bobby Byrd,
The Techniques,
Blake Baxter,
Marc Almond,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Josef K,
June of 44,
Youth Brigade,
Lou Christie,
Fela Kuti,
The Blackbyrds,
Spoonie Gee,
Audionom, Audionom, Audionom, Audionom.
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.