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 Uruguay and from Halifax.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mumbai.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bootsy Collins to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Rosa Yemen. All the underground hits.
All Matthew Bourne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Manfred Mann's Earth Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 guitar and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Black Pus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
Joy Division,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Dead C,
Laurel Aitken,
Gastr Del Sol,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Shadows of Knight,
Kevin Saunderson,
Excepter,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
DJ Sneak,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sight & Sound,
Erykah Badu,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Cowsills,
The Searchers,
Pylon,
Mars,
Eric Copeland,
The Smoke,
Mr. Review,
X-102,
Half Japanese,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
the Swans,
Sound Behaviour,
D'Angelo,
Joey Negro,
Ornette Coleman,
Johnny Osbourne,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Warren Ellis,
The Alarm Clocks,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Slits,
Masters at Work,
The Sound,
Banda Bassotti,
Jacques Brel,
Tommy Roe,
The Smiths,
Alison Limerick,
Lightning Bolt,
Brothers Johnson,
Rhythm & Sound,
Symarip,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Heaven 17,
Guru Guru,
The Trojans,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Al Stewart,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Silicon Teens,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ponytail,
The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks.
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.