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 China and from Tehran.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 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 Zapp to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Golliwogs. All the underground hits.
All Justin Hinds & The Dominoes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angels of Light & Akron/Family record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Livin' Joy,
David Axelrod,
John Foxx,
Sexual Harrassment,
AZ,
The Fire Engines,
This Heat,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Roger Hodgson,
the Human League,
Soul Sonic Force,
Los Fastidios,
Youth Brigade,
Nick Fraelich,
cv313,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
June Days,
Organ,
Niagra,
Gang of Four,
Lalo Schifrin,
Crime,
X-102,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Essential Logic,
Young Marble Giants,
Throbbing Gristle,
Yusef Lateef,
Ralphi Rosario,
Don Cherry,
Kaleidoscope,
The Happenings,
Funkadelic,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Iggy Pop,
T. Rex,
Grey Daturas,
Deakin,
Warsaw,
Curtis Mayfield,
Funky Four + One,
Dark Day,
The Names,
Moss Icon,
Marmalade,
Robert Wyatt,
The Seeds,
Graham Central Station,
The Pretty Things,
The Slits,
Mandrill,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
KRS-One,
UT,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Pantytec,
The Motions,
Mars,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.