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 East Timor and from Mumbai.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 sitar 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 Lebanon Hanover to the punk 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 Little Man. All the underground hits.
All The Dead C tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tears for Fears 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Moby Grape,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Human League,
Deepchord,
Stetsasonic,
The Trojans,
Buzzcocks,
Magma,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Second Layer,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Khruangbin,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Unwound,
Lakeside,
Spandau Ballet,
Crime,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Neil Young,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Victims,
Gil Scott Heron,
Porter Ricks,
The Alarm Clocks,
Moebius,
The Tremeloes,
Bill Near,
The Saints,
X-Ray Spex,
Sixth Finger,
Index,
Jawbox,
Eric Copeland,
The Doobie Brothers,
Joe Finger,
These Immortal Souls,
Todd Rundgren,
Quando Quango,
Liliput,
The Dead C,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Barrington Levy,
the Association,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Hardrive,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Rosa Yemen,
Nirvana,
Audionom,
the Slits,
The Durutti Column,
John Holt,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Jeru the Damaja,
Nico,
The Cowsills,
Flamin' Groovies,
Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye.
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.