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 Zimbabwe and from Tokyo.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the güiro 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 Aloha Tigers to the punk 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 Fifty Foot Hose. All the underground hits.
All Gang Starr tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Blues Magoos record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lower 48,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Dave Clark Five,
Average White Band,
The Knickerbockers,
Scientists,
Soft Cell,
Todd Rundgren,
Bootsy Collins,
The Barracudas,
Fluxion,
Girls At Our Best!,
Fatback Band,
Laurel Aitken,
Faust,
Malaria!,
The Fire Engines,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gregory Isaacs,
La Düsseldorf,
The Tremeloes,
Maurizio,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bobby Byrd,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Sam Rivers,
John Lydon,
48th St. Collective,
The Dirtbombs,
Procol Harum,
Nirvana,
Maleditus Sound,
Fad Gadget,
FM Einheit,
Bill Near,
The Doobie Brothers,
Porter Ricks,
The Count Five,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Tommy Roe,
Delon & Dalcan,
Jacob Miller,
Lindisfarne,
Jandek,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Buzzcocks,
Kerri Chandler,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sun City Girls,
Sexual Harrassment,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Robert Hood,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Black Bananas,
Television Personalities,
Traffic Nightmare,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Bang On A Can,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.