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 Fiji and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Parry Music to the electroclash 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 Bauhaus. All the underground hits.
All Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shuggie Otis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dark Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacques Brel,
Index,
Bronski Beat,
Hot Snakes,
Traffic Nightmare,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Duran Duran,
Crash Course in Science,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Gap Band,
In Retrospect,
Robert Wyatt,
The Golliwogs,
Gong,
Michelle Simonal,
The Knickerbockers,
Neil Young,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Eli Mardock,
Nils Olav,
Robert Hood,
Warren Ellis,
Scan 7,
Banda Bassotti,
Kenny Larkin,
Theoretical Girls,
Newcleus,
Rapeman,
Pussy Galore,
Spoonie Gee,
Brass Construction,
The Fire Engines,
Eden Ahbez,
Blossom Toes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Tres Demented,
The Evens,
48th St. Collective,
Scratch Acid,
The Tremeloes,
the Soft Cell,
Isaac Hayes,
OOIOO,
Bad Manners,
Masters at Work,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Joyce Sims,
kango's stein massive,
Scott Walker,
Royal Trux,
Byron Stingily,
Zapp,
Fugazi,
Essential Logic,
The Fuzztones,
The Move,
Quando Quango,
Silicon Teens,
Frankie Knuckles,
Lungfish,
Unwound,
D'Angelo,
Terry Callier,
Fat Boys, Fat Boys, Fat Boys, Fat Boys.
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.