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 Turkey and from Columbus.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 Tim Buckley to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sällskapet. All the underground hits.
All Stereo Dub tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fear record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Essential Logic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Kool Moe Dee,
EPMD,
Ossler,
Cluster,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Suicide,
X-102,
Can,
The American Breed,
Lebanon Hanover,
Ponytail,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Subhumans,
Al Stewart,
E-Dancer,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Avey Tare,
Brand Nubian,
Anakelly,
Bobby Byrd,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Bad Manners,
Tropical Tobacco,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Minor Threat,
T.S.O.L.,
Dead Boys,
PIL,
One Last Wish,
Angry Samoans,
Fear,
Deakin,
Zero Boys,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
X-101,
John Lydon,
Jawbox,
Ten City,
Altered Images,
the Swans,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bauhaus,
The Angels of Light,
Grauzone,
Electric Light Orchestra,
These Immortal Souls,
Silicon Teens,
Audionom,
Spandau Ballet,
The Happenings,
The Red Krayola,
The Trojans,
The Motions,
Scott Walker,
The Young Rascals,
China Crisis,
Q and Not U,
Eden Ahbez,
Eric B and Rakim,
Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers.
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.