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 China and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Schoolly D to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Porter Ricks. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Prunes 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spoonie Gee record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barrington Levy,
Fela Kuti,
Hot Snakes,
Lightning Bolt,
Talk Talk,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Evens,
DJ Style,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Aural Exciters,
The J.B.'s,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Boz Scaggs,
The Music Machine,
Lungfish,
Fifty Foot Hose,
World's Most,
Urselle,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Delon & Dalcan,
L. Decosne,
Colin Newman,
Soft Machine,
Clear Light,
Reuben Wilson,
Angry Samoans,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Pretty Things,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Saints,
Tomorrow,
Public Enemy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Zero Boys,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Roy Ayers,
Eve St. Jones,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Mummies,
Soft Cell,
the Soft Cell,
Nik Kershaw,
DJ Sneak,
48th St. Collective,
Ponytail,
Althea and Donna,
PIL,
Subhumans,
Minutemen,
Maurizio,
Franke,
Babytalk,
Leonard Cohen,
The Slits,
Television,
the Slits,
The United States of America,
One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish.
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.