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 Uganda 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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Bologna.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Faust to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All The Names tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bad Manners 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 güiro and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moebius,
the Association,
Main Source,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Zero Boys,
Section 25,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Buzzcocks,
Harmonia,
Ultra Naté,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Bronski Beat,
The New Christs,
Fat Boys,
In Retrospect,
Suicide,
Chrome,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Lou Reed,
Depeche Mode,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Minor Threat,
The Fall,
Outsiders,
Nas,
The Angels of Light,
Livin' Joy,
China Crisis,
Eric Dolphy,
Drexciya,
Crash Course in Science,
Ohio Players,
Grauzone,
Mo-Dettes,
EPMD,
Los Fastidios,
Black Moon,
The Pop Group,
Anakelly,
Pere Ubu,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Amazonics,
The Invisible,
Metal Thangz,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Visage,
Grey Daturas,
the Normal,
PIL,
Pagans,
Glenn Branca,
Crime,
Cybotron,
Subhumans,
The Five Americans,
The Associates,
Todd Rundgren,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, Ronan.
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.