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 Haiti and from Tehran.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 J.B.'s 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 Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Don Cherry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a ABBA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pretty Things,
The Fall,
Oblivians,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Ossler,
Brass Construction,
Lungfish,
The Detroit Cobras,
Easy Going,
Lyres,
Nas,
Porter Ricks,
Scan 7,
The Electric Prunes,
The Gap Band,
Quando Quango,
The Litter,
Absolute Body Control,
Dead Boys,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Magma,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Loose Ends,
EPMD,
Camouflage,
Pagans,
Lakeside,
Pulsallama,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Sight & Sound,
Altered Images,
Vainqueur,
Joyce Sims,
John Cale,
Barbara Tucker,
Aural Exciters,
David Axelrod,
Pere Ubu,
Interpol,
Lindisfarne,
Cheater Slicks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
DJ Style,
Deepchord,
The Buckinghams,
Godley & Creme,
Marmalade,
Terrestrial Tones,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Von Mondo,
Blake Baxter,
Mary Jane Girls,
Bill Near,
the Human League,
Yusef Lateef,
Con Funk Shun,
Aloha Tigers,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Public Enemy,
Lou Reed,
The Associates,
The American Breed,
Sonic Youth,
Sex Pistols,
Erasure, Erasure, Erasure, Erasure.
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.