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 Pakistan and from Seoul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
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 Mandrill to the disco 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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All Scion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unwound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Enemy,
Alton Ellis,
These Immortal Souls,
Crime,
X-Ray Spex,
Todd Rundgren,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Aloha Tigers,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Little Man,
Fluxion,
The Selecter,
The Grass Roots,
Lungfish,
Kerri Chandler,
Crooked Eye,
Saccharine Trust,
Scott Walker,
Symarip,
The Trojans,
PIL,
The Gladiators,
Minor Threat,
T.S.O.L.,
Metal Thangz,
Bobby Sherman,
F. McDonald,
The Skatalites,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
H. Thieme,
The Five Americans,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Joey Negro,
Don Cherry,
Scion,
AZ,
Stiv Bators,
Nation of Ulysses,
Absolute Body Control,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Fugazi,
David Axelrod,
Erykah Badu,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Dual Sessions,
Mr. Review,
Khruangbin,
The Zeros,
Barry Ungar,
Moss Icon,
Chris Corsano,
Aaron Thompson,
Sex Pistols,
Sister Nancy,
Sexual Harrassment,
Bauhaus,
The Neon Judgement,
Minny Pops,
Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur.
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.