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 Eritrea and from Shanghai.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 snare 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 The Last Poets to the electroclash 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 Surgeon. All the underground hits.
All Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fugazi record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rakim,
Thee Headcoats,
48th St. Collective,
Fluxion,
Metal Thangz,
Darondo,
Lakeside,
Dennis Brown,
Television Personalities,
Black Flag,
Kaleidoscope,
June of 44,
X-101,
Wire,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
R.M.O.,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Mars,
The Beau Brummels,
The Selecter,
Duran Duran,
the Slits,
Pulsallama,
Inner City,
B.T. Express,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Matthew Bourne,
The Searchers,
Intrusion,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Black Bananas,
Sly & The Family Stone,
China Crisis,
Half Japanese,
Young Marble Giants,
Mo-Dettes,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Lungfish,
the Swans,
The Tremeloes,
Freddie Wadling,
Blake Baxter,
Sonny Sharrock,
Grauzone,
Excepter,
a-ha,
Bobby Hutcherson,
DNA,
The Neon Judgement,
Faraquet,
Scrapy,
Bronski Beat,
Bobby Sherman,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Real Kids,
Eve St. Jones,
Delon & Dalcan,
Prince Buster,
Gabor Szabo,
Cybotron,
Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange.
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.