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 Guatemala and from Jakarta.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Crime to the disco 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 Lucky Dragons. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barclay James Harvest 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 marimba and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun City Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Intrusion,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Funkadelic,
Shoche,
Lungfish,
The Victims,
Siglo XX,
Warren Ellis,
Crooked Eye,
Reagan Youth,
Blake Baxter,
Sound Behaviour,
The Last Poets,
Deakin,
The New Christs,
Jeff Lynne,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Neon Judgement,
Japan,
The Angels of Light,
Pagans,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Derrick May,
Girls At Our Best!,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Fat Boys,
Marshall Jefferson,
Bobby Byrd,
The Walker Brothers,
Matthew Halsall,
The United States of America,
The Fugs,
In Retrospect,
the Bar-Kays,
Fatback Band,
The Music Machine,
Electric Prunes,
Monolake,
Lyres,
Slick Rick,
Mantronix,
48th St. Collective,
The Residents,
Ponytail,
Tim Buckley,
Sun City Girls,
Dual Sessions,
Nick Fraelich,
The Associates,
Zero Boys,
The Knickerbockers,
Clear Light,
Dorothy Ashby,
Porter Ricks,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Andrew Hill,
Make Up,
The Mojo Men,
The Red Krayola,
Toni Rubio,
Boogie Down Productions,
Rosa Yemen,
Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott.
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.