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 Mauritania and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Nils Olav. All the underground hits.
All Bill Near tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Junior Murvin 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 mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a One Last Wish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
Carl Craig,
The Fire Engines,
Alison Limerick,
Ronnie Foster,
OOIOO,
Slave,
The Durutti Column,
The Vogues,
Bootsy Collins,
Rod Modell,
Faust,
Drive Like Jehu,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Harpers Bizarre,
Mary Jane Girls,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Susan Cadogan,
Lou Reed,
John Lydon,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Selecter,
Severed Heads,
Gichy Dan,
The Buckinghams,
The Raincoats,
Howard Jones,
Cymande,
Rites of Spring,
The Kinks,
Tropical Tobacco,
Derrick May,
Magma,
Ronan,
Jimmy McGriff,
Sex Pistols,
Kenny Larkin,
Funkadelic,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Toni Rubio,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Gastr Del Sol,
Maleditus Sound,
Ohio Players,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Roger Hodgson,
Brand Nubian,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Walker Brothers,
the Association,
Gang Starr,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Alton Ellis,
T.S.O.L.,
Bill Near,
Outsiders,
Lightning Bolt,
Accadde A,
Duran Duran,
Bill Wells,
Leonard Cohen,
The Index,
Electric Light Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra.
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.