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 Paraguay 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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Deadbeat to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Modern Lovers. All the underground hits.
All Cabaret Voltaire tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a X-101 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brick,
Accadde A,
Wire,
Quadrant,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Slits,
Kaleidoscope,
X-Ray Spex,
Zapp,
The Electric Prunes,
Lungfish,
The Star Department,
Neu!,
ABBA,
Cameo,
Howard Jones,
The Durutti Column,
Colin Newman,
Mission of Burma,
Nation of Ulysses,
Don Cherry,
The Dead C,
The Mummies,
the Bar-Kays,
Kerri Chandler,
Joyce Sims,
Crispian St. Peters,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Toni Rubio,
Altered Images,
Iggy Pop,
Idris Muhammad,
Black Sheep,
Derrick Morgan,
The Golliwogs,
U.S. Maple,
Barbara Tucker,
Rites of Spring,
Jawbox,
Bauhaus,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Red Krayola,
Magazine,
Leonard Cohen,
David McCallum,
Yaz,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Gun Club,
Ultravox,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Mandrill,
The Martian,
Sällskapet,
The Toasters,
Barrington Levy,
T.S.O.L.,
Man Parrish,
Jandek,
Warren Ellis,
The Smoke,
Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants.
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.