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 Equatorial Guinea and from Lille.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
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 grunge 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 Rod Modell. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sisters of Mercy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Funky Four + One,
Yusef Lateef,
Index,
Josef K,
Pet Shop Boys,
Gang Green,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Agent Orange,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Happenings,
Boredoms,
Joy Division,
Eli Mardock,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Cheater Slicks,
The Evens,
Althea and Donna,
The Beau Brummels,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Sonics,
Davy DMX,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Pop Group,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Reuben Wilson,
Pole,
Flamin' Groovies,
UT,
The Gap Band,
Q65,
Neu!,
Bill Wells,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Girls At Our Best!,
These Immortal Souls,
The Human League,
Magma,
Jesper Dahlback,
Godley & Creme,
EPMD,
Brand Nubian,
Duran Duran,
Howard Jones,
Leonard Cohen,
Tommy Roe,
The Sound,
Vainqueur,
Excepter,
Bobby Womack,
The Stooges,
Sex Pistols,
Lindisfarne,
Sun Ra,
DNA,
Reagan Youth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Gerry Rafferty,
Y Pants,
Urselle,
The Motions,
Robert Wyatt,
Roy Ayers,
Jeff Mills,
Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras, Bush Tetras.
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.