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 Bahamas and from Johannesburg.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Sparks to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Absolute Body Control. All the underground hits.
All Lyres tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Teenage Jesus and the Jerks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fad Gadget record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Pierre Henry,
Ultra Naté,
Marine Girls,
Arab on Radar,
Make Up,
Flipper,
Barry Ungar,
Gabor Szabo,
The Busters,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Vogues,
Todd Rundgren,
The Pretty Things,
Tomorrow,
Stiv Bators,
Adolescents,
The Victims,
Roger Hodgson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Fela Kuti,
X-Ray Spex,
Hasil Adkins,
E-Dancer,
Sun Ra,
Kevin Saunderson,
Organ,
The Skatalites,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Litter,
Marmalade,
Lungfish,
the Swans,
The Zeros,
The Alarm Clocks,
Hardrive,
Clear Light,
B.T. Express,
Dennis Brown,
Boz Scaggs,
Arthur Verocai,
Moss Icon,
Eddi Front,
Animal Collective,
Angry Samoans,
The Kinks,
Symarip,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Sound Behaviour,
Rakim,
Al Stewart,
Camberwell Now,
Dawn Penn,
Sister Nancy,
Bootsy Collins,
Ronan,
Drexciya,
Scientists, Scientists, Scientists, Scientists.
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.