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 Singapore and from Jakarta.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 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 Cameo to the jazz 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 Gil Scott Heron. All the underground hits.
All Dual Sessions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Morten Harket record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Morten Harket record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Magma,
Schoolly D,
Stetsasonic,
Fatback Band,
Symarip,
Harpers Bizarre,
Swans,
Bobby Womack,
B.T. Express,
The New Christs,
Grandmaster Flash,
Drive Like Jehu,
Tropical Tobacco,
Arcadia,
Funkadelic,
The Five Americans,
Negative Approach,
Unwound,
The Saints,
Spoonie Gee,
China Crisis,
Soul Sonic Force,
Eden Ahbez,
Smog,
Monolake,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Icehouse,
Davy DMX,
Kool Moe Dee,
Lightning Bolt,
ABBA,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Heaven 17,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
David Axelrod,
Todd Rundgren,
Harmonia,
Second Layer,
48th St. Collective,
Ornette Coleman,
Cheater Slicks,
the Fania All-Stars,
Tim Buckley,
June Days,
The Pretty Things,
The Monks,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Tremeloes,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Boogie Down Productions,
Tommy Roe,
Trumans Water,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Kas Product,
The Golliwogs,
Royal Trux,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.