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 Korea North and from Beijing.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Andrew Hill to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Camberwell Now. All the underground hits.
All Joe Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stiv Bators 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 harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bootsy Collins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Popol Vuh,
The Wake,
The Gap Band,
Reagan Youth,
Aswad,
Joy Division,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Michelle Simonal,
Erasure,
Warsaw,
The Smiths,
Brick,
D'Angelo,
Depeche Mode,
Albert Ayler,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Letta Mbulu,
Urselle,
Dual Sessions,
Cecil Taylor,
Nas,
The Buckinghams,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Standells,
Tres Demented,
Skaos,
The Zeros,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Jacques Brel,
Sixth Finger,
Masters at Work,
JFA,
Thompson Twins,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Faust,
Roger Hodgson,
Unrelated Segments,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Dead C,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Dirtbombs,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Young Rascals,
Archie Shepp,
The Cramps,
Hoover,
Terrestrial Tones,
Japan,
Ice-T,
John Coltrane,
Groovy Waters,
Stockholm Monsters,
Ornette Coleman,
The Blues Magoos,
Dead Boys,
John Lydon,
F. McDonald,
Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.
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.