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 Vanuatu and from Johannesburg.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel to the dance 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 The Zeros. All the underground hits.
All The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Young Marble Giants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echospace record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Henry Cow,
Ituana,
Shuggie Otis,
Mantronix,
Eden Ahbez,
Lightning Bolt,
Underground Resistance,
Jawbox,
Fear,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Dead C,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David McCallum,
The Dave Clark Five,
cv313,
Chris & Cosey,
Nick Fraelich,
Cluster,
Easy Going,
The Fire Engines,
Siglo XX,
The Gun Club,
Marvin Gaye,
Tears for Fears,
The New Christs,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Malaria!,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
PIL,
The Invisible,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bob Dylan,
Reuben Wilson,
The Real Kids,
Scion,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Crispy Ambulance,
Man Eating Sloth,
Alton Ellis,
The Music Machine,
The Smoke,
Television,
Max Romeo,
The Selecter,
The Flesh Eaters,
Piero Umiliani,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Q and Not U,
Aural Exciters,
Bobby Sherman,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Hardrive,
Skriet,
Patti Smith,
Joe Smooth,
Todd Rundgren,
The Modern Lovers,
Prince Buster,
Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté.
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.