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 Venezuela and from Lagos.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Robert Palmer 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 Radiopuhelimet to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David Axelrod. All the underground hits.
All Rod Modell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Misunderstood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Little Man record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Warren Ellis,
Don Cherry,
Terry Callier,
Anthony Braxton,
Pierre Henry,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Michelle Simonal,
The Dirtbombs,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Japan,
Cluster,
Animal Collective,
Rufus Thomas,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Divine Comedy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Laurel Aitken,
Johnny Clarke,
the Soft Cell,
Skriet,
World's Most,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Gap Band,
Gong,
Alton Ellis,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Das Ding,
Hardrive,
Unrelated Segments,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
PIL,
Newcleus,
DJ Sneak,
Babytalk,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Alice Coltrane,
Swell Maps,
Minnie Riperton,
Crash Course in Science,
Reagan Youth,
Subhumans,
Sixth Finger,
T. Rex,
The Buckinghams,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Dorothy Ashby,
Pet Shop Boys,
Kas Product,
Slave,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Moody Blues,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
E-Dancer,
Boredoms,
Vainqueur,
Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe.
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.