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 Georgia and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 DNA to the crunk 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 The Buckinghams. All the underground hits.
All Lower 48 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Sonics 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Charles Mingus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Don Cherry,
Judy Mowatt,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Dennis Brown,
ABBA,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Liliput,
Subhumans,
Pantytec,
cv313,
DJ Sneak,
Khruangbin,
Joe Smooth,
Josef K,
U.S. Maple,
Byron Stingily,
Wally Richardson,
Marc Almond,
Rufus Thomas,
Cluster,
Sight & Sound,
The Music Machine,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Crispian St. Peters,
Massinfluence,
The Flesh Eaters,
Bobby Sherman,
Neil Young,
Tom Boy,
the Association,
Second Layer,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Monochrome Set,
Jimmy McGriff,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Sister Nancy,
Cecil Taylor,
Saccharine Trust,
Symarip,
Unrelated Segments,
The Happenings,
Barrington Levy,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Kurtis Blow,
John Coltrane,
The Doors,
Lindisfarne,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Fire Engines,
Youth Brigade,
D'Angelo,
Mad Mike,
Rotary Connection,
Jerry's Kids,
Cybotron,
The Techniques,
The Moleskins,
Jacques Brel,
Technova,
Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren.
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.