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 Equatorial Guinea and from Sao Paulo.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Monks to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Unrelated Segments. All the underground hits.
All Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mary Jane Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mary Jane Girls,
Neu!,
Joe Smooth,
CMW,
Black Moon,
Kayak,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Pussy Galore,
Pagans,
The J.B.'s,
Shuggie Otis,
Patti Smith,
The Velvet Underground,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Cymande,
Rotary Connection,
Symarip,
Marshall Jefferson,
Marc Almond,
Niagra,
X-102,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Curtis Mayfield,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
X-101,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sonic Youth,
Toni Rubio,
La Düsseldorf,
Accadde A,
Fat Boys,
Camberwell Now,
Little Man,
Jerry's Kids,
World's Most,
Colin Newman,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Fugazi,
The Wake,
Sun City Girls,
Jeff Lynne,
Glambeats Corp.,
the Slits,
Sister Nancy,
Freddie Wadling,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
ABBA,
Barry Ungar,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Babytalk,
Outsiders,
Dawn Penn,
Nico,
Joyce Sims,
Alton Ellis,
Drive Like Jehu,
Bang On A Can,
Franke,
Boredoms,
48th St. Collective,
10cc,
Barbara Tucker,
Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya.
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.