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 Panama and from New York.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Quadrant to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every New Order record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Theoretical Girls,
Sonic Youth,
The Star Department,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kool Moe Dee,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lightning Bolt,
Dead Boys,
DNA,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Dave Clark Five,
Trumans Water,
Scrapy,
Little Man,
The Sound,
The Beau Brummels,
LL Cool J,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Hoover,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Alice Coltrane,
Lyres,
Agent Orange,
Bluetip,
Radiopuhelimet,
Nation of Ulysses,
Buzzcocks,
L. Decosne,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
X-Ray Spex,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Stooges,
Barclay James Harvest,
Skarface,
Mantronix,
Lou Christie,
Joy Division,
Scan 7,
Lungfish,
Mandrill,
The Gladiators,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Barbara Tucker,
The Slits,
Public Enemy,
Nick Fraelich,
The Doobie Brothers,
Tim Buckley,
the Human League,
Porter Ricks,
Procol Harum,
Von Mondo,
The Misunderstood,
Crooked Eye,
The Real Kids,
Boogie Down Productions,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Model 500,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Gang of Four,
Television,
The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines.
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.