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 Jamaica and from Mexico City.
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 Madrid and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 güiro 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 The Associates to the jazz 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 The Zeros. All the underground hits.
All L. Decosne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vainqueur record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Techniques,
Wally Richardson,
Toni Rubio,
Mark Hollis,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Ronan,
The J.B.'s,
Suicide,
The Victims,
Young Marble Giants,
The Tremeloes,
Fela Kuti,
The Index,
Robert Wyatt,
Scientists,
Ronnie Foster,
Quando Quango,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Walker Brothers,
Mr. Review,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Gong,
Max Romeo,
Alice Coltrane,
Television,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Bronski Beat,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Doobie Brothers,
Bizarre Inc.,
Slick Rick,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Offenders,
Rakim,
David Bowie,
Man Eating Sloth,
the Fania All-Stars,
Infiniti,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Durutti Column,
Bobby Hutcherson,
John Cale,
Animal Collective,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Robert Hood,
Carl Craig,
Fluxion,
The Flesh Eaters,
Silicon Teens,
These Immortal Souls,
Q65,
Soul Sonic Force,
48th St. Collective,
The Fire Engines,
Nick Fraelich,
Neu!,
The Move,
Gregory Isaacs,
the Sonics,
Von Mondo,
Tomorrow,
The Grass Roots,
Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro.
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.