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 Turkmenistan and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Gastr Del Sol. All the underground hits.
All Harpers Bizarre tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Men They Couldn't Hang record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Art Ensemble Of Chicago record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Motions,
T.S.O.L.,
X-101,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
the Human League,
Youth Brigade,
The United States of America,
Bootsy Collins,
Sonic Youth,
Radiohead,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Five Americans,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Unrelated Segments,
Leonard Cohen,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Joy Division,
Shoche,
The Neon Judgement,
Althea and Donna,
Vladislav Delay,
Josef K,
Funky Four + One,
The Saints,
Hashim,
Half Japanese,
Dual Sessions,
Roger Hodgson,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lee Hazlewood,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Agent Orange,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Trojans,
Tropical Tobacco,
One Last Wish,
Archie Shepp,
Black Pus,
Yazoo,
Zero Boys,
Alphaville,
Altered Images,
Visage,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Eden Ahbez,
R.M.O.,
The Blues Magoos,
Sixth Finger,
Robert Hood,
Sam Rivers,
James White and The Blacks,
Eli Mardock,
Drexciya,
The Alarm Clocks,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Moody Blues,
Crooked Eye,
Symarip,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
OOIOO,
Funkadelic,
Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer.
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.