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 Vanuatu and from Lyon.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Portland.
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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Eddi Front to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Surgeon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 chamberlin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Al Stewart,
Whodini,
Suburban Knight,
Gang of Four,
Das Ding,
Bronski Beat,
MC5,
Yellowson,
Funkadelic,
These Immortal Souls,
Oneida,
Bush Tetras,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Tremeloes,
Ludus,
Amazonics,
Idris Muhammad,
Soft Cell,
The Saints,
The Index,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Man Eating Sloth,
the Bar-Kays,
Althea and Donna,
Fugazi,
Soul II Soul,
Archie Shepp,
Pole,
Young Marble Giants,
Au Pairs,
Johnny Clarke,
Infiniti,
Y Pants,
X-101,
The Velvet Underground,
Pet Shop Boys,
Roger Hodgson,
Eric Dolphy,
The Move,
Los Fastidios,
Sällskapet,
Schoolly D,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Marvin Gaye,
Mission of Burma,
Man Parrish,
Piero Umiliani,
Joe Smooth,
Gabor Szabo,
Vladislav Delay,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Cramps,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Marc Almond,
John Foxx,
Black Moon,
Ronan,
John Lydon,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Bobby Sherman,
The Busters,
Glambeats Corp.,
Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic.
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.