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 Senegal and from Lyon.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Woodstock.
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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Sugar Minott to the rock 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 Mark Hollis. All the underground hits.
All Larry & the Blue Notes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Interpol 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blancmange record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Half Japanese,
Barry Ungar,
Arab on Radar,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Index,
Marmalade,
Index,
Vainqueur,
World's Most,
Donald Byrd,
Gang Gang Dance,
Faraquet,
Johnny Osbourne,
Robert Hood,
Fat Boys,
The Music Machine,
Q65,
The Young Rascals,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Fugs,
the Sonics,
Black Bananas,
The Dead C,
Kaleidoscope,
Nik Kershaw,
Massinfluence,
Subhumans,
Can,
Groovy Waters,
Mantronix,
Minny Pops,
Simply Red,
The Residents,
Rufus Thomas,
Porter Ricks,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Bronski Beat,
Yusef Lateef,
Josef K,
Little Man,
Neu!,
Marine Girls,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Amon Düül,
Cymande,
Drexciya,
The Pretty Things,
Scrapy,
The Five Americans,
Delta 5,
R.M.O.,
Guru Guru,
10cc,
Duran Duran,
Bob Dylan,
The Selecter,
Accadde A,
Janne Schatter,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Warren Ellis,
The New Christs,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.