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 Kyrgyzstan and from London.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Rufus Thomas to the punk 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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All De La Soul & Jungle Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Public Image Ltd. 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sam Rivers,
Pussy Galore,
Vainqueur,
Half Japanese,
Black Flag,
Dual Sessions,
LL Cool J,
Lyres,
Bill Near,
Kayak,
H. Thieme,
Danielle Patucci,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Ten City,
Iggy Pop,
Silicon Teens,
Rufus Thomas,
Neu!,
Barry Ungar,
The New Christs,
The Count Five,
Flash Fearless,
The Five Americans,
Derrick Morgan,
Lalann,
Faust,
The Monochrome Set,
La Düsseldorf,
The Associates,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Suburban Knight,
Ponytail,
Negative Approach,
Gastr Del Sol,
Echospace,
Second Layer,
Shoche,
Nas,
Cheater Slicks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Robert Görl,
Nick Fraelich,
The Cure,
the Germs,
Slave,
Jeff Mills,
The Electric Prunes,
Buzzcocks,
Cybotron,
The Cowsills,
Whodini,
Fluxion,
The Residents,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Moody Blues,
Dawn Penn,
The Gap Band,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pole,
Pantytec,
Ossler,
Colin Newman,
Minutemen,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.