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 Austria and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 güiro 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 Grass Roots to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Gladiators. All the underground hits.
All Althea and Donna tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Spoonie Gee record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 chamberlin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barbara Tucker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Terry Callier,
Throbbing Gristle,
Quando Quango,
Tommy Roe,
Procol Harum,
The Count Five,
Lyres,
Nas,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Buckinghams,
Johnny Osbourne,
Television Personalities,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Peter and Kerry,
Bauhaus,
The Fire Engines,
Arab on Radar,
Crime,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
David Bowie,
The Sound,
Gil Scott Heron,
Smog,
Q and Not U,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Liliput,
10cc,
Wally Richardson,
Basic Channel,
Prince Buster,
Infiniti,
Kerrie Biddell,
Rotary Connection,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Man Eating Sloth,
DNA,
Technova,
Sam Rivers,
Chris & Cosey,
Peter & Gordon,
Yaz,
Rakim,
Alton Ellis,
Deepchord,
The Smoke,
Excepter,
Robert Görl,
The Standells,
Ice-T,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
LL Cool J,
The Golliwogs,
The New Christs,
Black Sheep,
Whodini,
The Blackbyrds,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros.
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.