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 Senegal and from Johannesburg.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 mellotron 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Joey Negro. All the underground hits.
All Sugar Minott tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Desert Stars 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kenny Larkin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hashim,
Joey Negro,
Glambeats Corp.,
Drive Like Jehu,
Prince Buster,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Walker Brothers,
Heaven 17,
The Knickerbockers,
Lightning Bolt,
Little Man,
The Gap Band,
Minutemen,
Smog,
Chris & Cosey,
Thompson Twins,
ABC,
Severed Heads,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
PIL,
Sun Ra,
Oneida,
Dead Boys,
The Stooges,
The Cowsills,
Yellowson,
Ice-T,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Joe Smooth,
Brick,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Kas Product,
Animal Collective,
Jimmy McGriff,
Shuggie Otis,
The Slackers,
Los Fastidios,
The Martian,
Urselle,
Public Image Ltd.,
Bobby Sherman,
Lou Reed,
Rapeman,
Connie Case,
Godley & Creme,
The Skatalites,
Theoretical Girls,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
James White and The Blacks,
Terry Callier,
Interpol,
Gong,
Lyres,
Graham Central Station,
Unrelated Segments,
The Pretty Things,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Au Pairs,
Cluster,
Bad Manners,
The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues.
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.