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 Bhutan and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 synthesizer 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 The Gories to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Eric B and Rakim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Holt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Mars,
Nation of Ulysses,
Can,
Television,
Metal Thangz,
World's Most,
The Offenders,
The Litter,
New York Dolls,
Quantec,
Kas Product,
Marvin Gaye,
Joe Smooth,
Alton Ellis,
Barry Ungar,
Anthony Braxton,
Echospace,
Scion,
The Dead C,
The Victims,
Amazonics,
The Music Machine,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Bronski Beat,
Sly & The Family Stone,
the Human League,
Blossom Toes,
Kurtis Blow,
Connie Case,
Au Pairs,
Joyce Sims,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Pretty Things,
Sister Nancy,
Jesper Dahlback,
Fear,
Sällskapet,
David McCallum,
Donny Hathaway,
Loose Ends,
Curtis Mayfield,
Outsiders,
The Barracudas,
Negative Approach,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Suicide,
Bang On A Can,
Interpol,
X-Ray Spex,
Lindisfarne,
a-ha,
Gong,
Althea and Donna,
Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel.
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.