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 Denmark and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Marmalade to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Youth Brigade. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cramps 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mars,
The Victims,
Bauhaus,
The Cure,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bobby Womack,
John Foxx,
Scott Walker,
Grandmaster Flash,
Gabor Szabo,
X-Ray Spex,
Yazoo,
Alton Ellis,
Deadbeat,
Johnny Osbourne,
Sound Behaviour,
Marmalade,
The Detroit Cobras,
Jeff Lynne,
X-101,
Scrapy,
DJ Sneak,
Pantytec,
Hardrive,
Make Up,
Echospace,
The Tremeloes,
Lebanon Hanover,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Association,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Hasil Adkins,
Bang On A Can,
Funky Four + One,
The Pretty Things,
Rhythm & Sound,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Sonny Sharrock,
the Sonics,
Smog,
B.T. Express,
June Days,
The Leaves,
The American Breed,
Agent Orange,
Stockholm Monsters,
Supertramp,
Subhumans,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Selecter,
Patti Smith,
Mo-Dettes,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Neon Judgement,
Lindisfarne,
The Gories,
Y Pants,
Skarface,
Das Ding,
The Cramps,
Erasure,
The Moleskins,
Ultravox,
Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls.
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.