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 Greece and from Toronto.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 arpeggiator 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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Lou Reed & John Cale. All the underground hits.
All Marmalade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Urselle 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rites of Spring,
The Litter,
Scion,
June Days,
Connie Case,
Supertramp,
Liliput,
Deadbeat,
The Selecter,
Lucky Dragons,
Bootsy Collins,
Ultimate Spinach,
Yusef Lateef,
The Last Poets,
Bauhaus,
Masters at Work,
Flamin' Groovies,
Jeff Lynne,
Glenn Branca,
Barbara Tucker,
Mission of Burma,
The Dirtbombs,
Massinfluence,
Sixth Finger,
the Association,
Lou Christie,
Panda Bear,
Ralphi Rosario,
Dark Day,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Wasted Youth,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Gap Band,
UT,
EPMD,
China Crisis,
Adolescents,
Ten City,
The Evens,
Ultravox,
Robert Görl,
Ken Boothe,
Mars,
Skarface,
Los Fastidios,
Amon Düül,
Minny Pops,
Slick Rick,
Sugar Minott,
Cal Tjader,
The Names,
Delon & Dalcan,
A Certain Ratio,
Hoover,
Gong,
Japan,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.