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 Indonesia 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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Joensuu 1685 to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Brothers Johnson. All the underground hits.
All The New Christs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Banda Bassotti 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Supertramp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Model 500,
Youth Brigade,
The Smoke,
Visage,
Josef K,
Guru Guru,
Television Personalities,
Ronan,
Soul Sonic Force,
Lee Hazlewood,
Patti Smith,
F. McDonald,
Ten City,
Wolf Eyes,
Roxette,
48th St. Collective,
Sun City Girls,
Neil Young,
Lou Reed,
Main Source,
Black Flag,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Los Fastidios,
Aloha Tigers,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Blues Magoos,
The Shadows of Knight,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Joey Negro,
The Associates,
Second Layer,
Make Up,
Joe Smooth,
UT,
Sun Ra,
Scratch Acid,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Aural Exciters,
Harpers Bizarre,
Tim Buckley,
Intrusion,
Yazoo,
The Electric Prunes,
T.S.O.L.,
Yaz,
Ornette Coleman,
David Bowie,
Lou Christie,
Tom Boy,
the Normal,
Traffic Nightmare,
Hashim,
The Happenings,
Fela Kuti,
Symarip,
Godley & Creme,
Terrestrial Tones,
A Certain Ratio,
Arcadia,
Marc Almond,
Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends.
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.