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 Honduras and from Bremen.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Lungfish to the rap 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 Make Up. All the underground hits.
All Crooked Eye tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hot Snakes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Erykah Badu,
The Count Five,
Jandek,
Cluster,
Technova,
Drexciya,
Urselle,
Connie Case,
Vladislav Delay,
PIL,
Barclay James Harvest,
H. Thieme,
The Pop Group,
Brand Nubian,
Ultravox,
Yellowson,
The United States of America,
Charles Mingus,
Soft Cell,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
MC5,
Siglo XX,
Grey Daturas,
Soulsonic Force,
Suburban Knight,
Underground Resistance,
Peter & Gordon,
Tubeway Army,
The Detroit Cobras,
Joe Smooth,
Eurythmics,
The Doors,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Infiniti,
Lucky Dragons,
Marc Almond,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Talk Talk,
The Raincoats,
Outsiders,
Black Moon,
Curtis Mayfield,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Schoolly D,
Glenn Branca,
Erasure,
Bootsy Collins,
Bad Manners,
Arthur Verocai,
Joyce Sims,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Johnny Clarke,
Fear,
The Stooges,
The Star Department,
Alton Ellis,
The Young Rascals,
Idris Muhammad,
Ultra Naté,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Henry Cow,
Little Man,
Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators.
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.