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 Micronesia and from Accra.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Saints to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Ultimate Spinach. All the underground hits.
All Minnie Riperton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every OOIOO record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Flock of Seagulls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brand Nubian,
Suburban Knight,
R.M.O.,
Jimmy McGriff,
Warsaw,
The J.B.'s,
Curtis Mayfield,
Andrew Hill,
Tropical Tobacco,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Loose Ends,
Cybotron,
June Days,
Skaos,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Moleskins,
Pet Shop Boys,
Marc Almond,
Faust,
Chris & Cosey,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Offenders,
the Bar-Kays,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ten City,
Boredoms,
Idris Muhammad,
Fad Gadget,
Tubeway Army,
Jerry's Kids,
Duran Duran,
Infiniti,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Cure,
Marcia Griffiths,
Zero Boys,
Glambeats Corp.,
Nick Fraelich,
Al Stewart,
Sound Behaviour,
Crime,
James Chance & The Contortions,
James White and The Blacks,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
10cc,
Quando Quango,
Lou Reed,
Archie Shepp,
Barbara Tucker,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Todd Rundgren,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Boz Scaggs,
Grauzone,
Minor Threat,
The Saints,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang Green,
The New Christs,
Fugazi,
Quadrant,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Human League,
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow.
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.