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 Madagascar and from Shanghai.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Symarip to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Marcia Griffiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marcia Griffiths 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Country Joe & The Fish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tom Boy,
The Techniques,
Roger Hodgson,
Scratch Acid,
The Grass Roots,
Erykah Badu,
Blake Baxter,
Surgeon,
The Seeds,
The American Breed,
the Human League,
Rufus Thomas,
PIL,
Sight & Sound,
James White and The Blacks,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Black Pus,
the Fania All-Stars,
Brand Nubian,
Yellowson,
Excepter,
Gastr Del Sol,
Crooked Eye,
Soul Sonic Force,
Harmonia,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Cymande,
Porter Ricks,
Hoover,
David Axelrod,
Nik Kershaw,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Eden Ahbez,
Wolf Eyes,
Brothers Johnson,
cv313,
Heaven 17,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Camberwell Now,
Skarface,
Wire,
ABBA,
MC5,
The Knickerbockers,
Gang of Four,
Beasts of Bourbon,
One Last Wish,
OOIOO,
Scott Walker,
H. Thieme,
Wings,
The Electric Prunes,
Soft Cell,
Second Layer,
Mantronix,
Junior Murvin,
Whodini,
Reuben Wilson,
Soft Machine,
Sun Ra,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Aswad, Aswad, Aswad, Aswad.
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.