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 Burundi and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Bologna.
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 theremin 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 Liaisons Dangereuses to the punk 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 PIL. All the underground hits.
All Gary Puckett & The Union Gap tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jerry Gold Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Grass Roots,
The Monochrome Set,
Cheater Slicks,
The Dave Clark Five,
Ultravox,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Wings,
The Saints,
Pagans,
Sound Behaviour,
Subhumans,
Arcadia,
Q and Not U,
PIL,
Pussy Galore,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Groovy Waters,
Quando Quango,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Althea and Donna,
Nirvana,
Delon & Dalcan,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
In Retrospect,
B.T. Express,
Adolescents,
Nik Kershaw,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jacques Brel,
Bush Tetras,
Carl Craig,
48th St. Collective,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
U.S. Maple,
Fela Kuti,
Mandrill,
Pole,
Laurel Aitken,
John Lydon,
The Buckinghams,
Monolake,
The Moody Blues,
the Normal,
Heaven 17,
Lindisfarne,
Y Pants,
Chrome,
Sällskapet,
Altered Images,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Unrelated Segments,
EPMD,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Don Cherry,
Marine Girls,
Sex Pistols,
Popol Vuh,
Steve Hackett,
Shoche,
D'Angelo, D'Angelo, D'Angelo, D'Angelo.
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.