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 Haiti and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 marimba 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 the Slits to the crunk 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 Peter & Gordon. All the underground hits.
All Kerri Chandler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Louis and Bebe Barron record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
It's A Beautiful Day,
Marvin Gaye,
Parry Music,
X-Ray Spex,
Roy Ayers,
Popol Vuh,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Metal Thangz,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Happenings,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Todd Rundgren,
CMW,
Cecil Taylor,
Donny Hathaway,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Soft Machine,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sight & Sound,
Alton Ellis,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Tres Demented,
Thompson Twins,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Girls At Our Best!,
Ice-T,
Pussy Galore,
June of 44,
Todd Terry,
AZ,
Sex Pistols,
The Fire Engines,
The Flesh Eaters,
Bobby Hutcherson,
the Human League,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Curtis Mayfield,
Motorama,
Joe Smooth,
Essential Logic,
Laurel Aitken,
Moebius,
Janne Schatter,
Tim Buckley,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Barrington Levy,
Altered Images,
Bobby Byrd,
The Smiths,
The Beau Brummels,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sun City Girls,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Soft Cell,
X-102,
Sexual Harrassment,
Lungfish,
Pere Ubu,
The Angels of Light,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.