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 Comoros and from Manila.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Dennis Brown. All the underground hits.
All Ultra Naté tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joy Division record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fat Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Newcleus,
U.S. Maple,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Neu!,
Von Mondo,
Cameo,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sixth Finger,
Chrome,
10cc,
Mandrill,
The Last Poets,
Maleditus Sound,
The Human League,
Isaac Hayes,
The Sonics,
June Days,
the Swans,
The Wake,
Tomorrow,
Lungfish,
Aloha Tigers,
Sam Rivers,
Outsiders,
Blake Baxter,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Pussy Galore,
Wally Richardson,
Eden Ahbez,
The Fall,
Can,
Masters at Work,
Gregory Isaacs,
Fat Boys,
Black Moon,
Matthew Halsall,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Alarm Clocks,
X-101,
DJ Style,
Easy Going,
Eli Mardock,
Ludus,
The Invisible,
Lower 48,
Popol Vuh,
David McCallum,
Camberwell Now,
Joe Smooth,
Spandau Ballet,
Al Stewart,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Quantec,
Rites of Spring,
Scratch Acid,
Marine Girls,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Chris Corsano,
Essential Logic,
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash.
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.