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 Equatorial Guinea and from Portland.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Con Funk Shun to the rap 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 Bill Wells. All the underground hits.
All the Bar-Kays tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oneida record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
The Pretty Things,
the Germs,
Ken Boothe,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Stetsasonic,
The Birthday Party,
Massinfluence,
Underground Resistance,
Easy Going,
Joy Division,
The Young Rascals,
Delon & Dalcan,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Lindisfarne,
Depeche Mode,
The Electric Prunes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Bobbi Humphrey,
LL Cool J,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bill Wells,
MDC,
Porter Ricks,
Quantec,
Dual Sessions,
Brick,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
T.S.O.L.,
Davy DMX,
Metal Thangz,
Swell Maps,
Excepter,
Essential Logic,
Fela Kuti,
The Fire Engines,
Rakim,
DNA,
Aswad,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Quadrant,
Monolake,
Rapeman,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Echospace,
Electric Prunes,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Byron Stingily,
The Slackers,
Oblivians,
Unwound,
Throbbing Gristle,
Stockholm Monsters,
Bobby Womack,
Cal Tjader,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.