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 Malawi and from Taipei.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Gun Club to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Byron Stingily. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pop Group record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Remains record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
A Certain Ratio,
Kayak,
The New Christs,
Reuben Wilson,
Rosa Yemen,
The Neon Judgement,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Kinks,
Neil Young,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Pole,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bad Manners,
Alison Limerick,
Nas,
Boz Scaggs,
the Slits,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Easy Going,
The Victims,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
the Soft Cell,
Sällskapet,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Roxette,
Fugazi,
Terry Callier,
Judy Mowatt,
Robert Görl,
Tropical Tobacco,
the Human League,
Lyres,
Ken Boothe,
The Beau Brummels,
Danielle Patucci,
the Swans,
Underground Resistance,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Aswad,
Josef K,
Fad Gadget,
Fatback Band,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Andrew Hill,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Essential Logic,
Hot Snakes,
Ossler,
Minutemen,
Eric Dolphy,
Motorama,
David Bowie,
Johnny Clarke,
Masters at Work,
H. Thieme,
The Skatalites,
The Move,
Bobby Womack,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Swell Maps,
Cal Tjader,
Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow.
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.