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 Philippines and from Mexico City.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Reuben Wilson to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Byron Stingily. All the underground hits.
All Subhumans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Justin Hinds & The Dominoes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
R.M.O.,
Outsiders,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Suburban Knight,
Siglo XX,
The Happenings,
Gregory Isaacs,
Joey Negro,
China Crisis,
The Golliwogs,
Anthony Braxton,
Pet Shop Boys,
Funkadelic,
Marshall Jefferson,
Wire,
The Birthday Party,
The Pretty Things,
Easy Going,
Hasil Adkins,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Real Kids,
Warsaw,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Electric Prunes,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Black Bananas,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Shadows of Knight,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Blake Baxter,
Henry Cow,
Model 500,
Nirvana,
Dead Boys,
Alphaville,
Lalo Schifrin,
Theoretical Girls,
Spoonie Gee,
In Retrospect,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Faust,
Stereo Dub,
Ponytail,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Wasted Youth,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Niagra,
Mission of Burma,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Searchers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Bob Dylan,
Graham Central Station,
Man Parrish,
Robert Görl,
Mars,
Cluster,
The Associates,
Motorama, Motorama, Motorama, Motorama.
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.