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 Kiribati and from Copenhagen.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Deadbeat to the funk 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 Lalo Schifrin. All the underground hits.
All The Gun Club tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alphaville record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacob Miller record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joy Division,
A Certain Ratio,
Drive Like Jehu,
Soul Sonic Force,
Pagans,
Gil Scott Heron,
Amon Düül,
Delta 5,
Bush Tetras,
Swans,
Gang Green,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Hashim,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Urselle,
The Shadows of Knight,
Gabor Szabo,
Rosa Yemen,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Camouflage,
Rakim,
Television Personalities,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Alarm Clocks,
Roxette,
Don Cherry,
Maleditus Sound,
The Fugs,
K-Klass,
Pierre Henry,
Easy Going,
Charles Mingus,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Sun Ra,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Flipper,
Bob Dylan,
Amon Düül II,
Chris Corsano,
Hasil Adkins,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Zapp,
The Human League,
Fad Gadget,
Glenn Branca,
The Stooges,
The Move,
Sixth Finger,
Ice-T,
The Busters,
Ornette Coleman,
Television,
The Mummies,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Derrick Morgan,
Infiniti,
The Remains,
Mary Jane Girls,
Scion,
X-Ray Spex,
Eurythmics, Eurythmics, Eurythmics, Eurythmics.
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.