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 Tonga and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 organ 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 Monolake to the jazz 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 Deadbeat. All the underground hits.
All The Walker Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every ABBA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Aswad,
Au Pairs,
The Durutti Column,
Blancmange,
Reagan Youth,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Blossom Toes,
Spoonie Gee,
Roxy Music,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
It's A Beautiful Day,
the Bar-Kays,
Eli Mardock,
Duran Duran,
Byron Stingily,
Crooked Eye,
Oblivians,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Soft Machine,
Cybotron,
Television,
Ituana,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Toasters,
David Axelrod,
Make Up,
PIL,
Rapeman,
Youth Brigade,
Pharoah Sanders,
Tim Buckley,
Bob Dylan,
Eurythmics,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Music Machine,
Kurtis Blow,
John Lydon,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Skarface,
Radiopuhelimet,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Theoretical Girls,
Lou Reed,
Liliput,
The Selecter,
Mandrill,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
DJ Sneak,
Lucky Dragons,
Eric Dolphy,
Tubeway Army,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Joey Negro,
Aloha Tigers,
Marshall Jefferson,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Bauhaus,
Neil Young,
Warren Ellis,
Soulsonic Force,
New York Dolls,
Pere Ubu,
Rakim, Rakim, Rakim, Rakim.
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.