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 Vanuatu and from Philadelphia.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 oboe 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 Sly & The Family Stone 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 The Tremeloes. All the underground hits.
All Major Organ And The Adding Machine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Star Department record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 clarinet and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anakelly,
Tubeway Army,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Vogues,
Ornette Coleman,
Warsaw,
Mad Mike,
Sarah Menescal,
Henry Cow,
Frankie Knuckles,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Joyce Sims,
Anthony Braxton,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
48th St. Collective,
Pere Ubu,
Von Mondo,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Fugazi,
The Doors,
Camberwell Now,
Crash Course in Science,
Lakeside,
The Kinks,
The Blues Magoos,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Suicide,
Flamin' Groovies,
Tim Buckley,
Pantaleimon,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Babytalk,
Little Man,
Steve Hackett,
Index,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Skarface,
Aaron Thompson,
Radiopuhelimet,
Howard Jones,
Alice Coltrane,
Bob Dylan,
MC5,
the Slits,
Rotary Connection,
Blossom Toes,
Shuggie Otis,
Josef K,
Ronan,
The Remains,
Unwound,
Chris & Cosey,
The Martian,
Ken Boothe,
Symarip,
Oneida,
Thompson Twins,
The United States of America, The United States of America, The United States of America, The United States of America.
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.