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 Uzbekistan and from Accra.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Alarm Clocks to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Peter and Kerry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pierre Henry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-102,
The Last Poets,
John Lydon,
The Raincoats,
Goldenarms,
Gang Green,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Todd Terry,
Flash Fearless,
New York Dolls,
Basic Channel,
Altered Images,
David McCallum,
Nico,
L. Decosne,
Laurel Aitken,
Michelle Simonal,
Radio Birdman,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Motions,
Popol Vuh,
Public Enemy,
The Shadows of Knight,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Saccharine Trust,
Tears for Fears,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Mandrill,
Lyres,
Maleditus Sound,
Nick Fraelich,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Shuggie Otis,
The Index,
The Blackbyrds,
Surgeon,
The Tremeloes,
Derrick May,
Tubeway Army,
Boredoms,
Camberwell Now,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Pierre Henry,
Fluxion,
Kerrie Biddell,
Pulsallama,
The J.B.'s,
Suburban Knight,
Funky Four + One,
Spandau Ballet,
Janne Schatter,
Technova,
La Düsseldorf,
Oneida,
Gichy Dan,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Loose Ends,
John Coltrane,
Boz Scaggs,
Alison Limerick,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dennis Brown,
Nik Kershaw, Nik Kershaw, Nik Kershaw, Nik Kershaw.
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.