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 Germany 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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Andrew Hill to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Scratch Acid. All the underground hits.
All The Golliwogs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Scratch Acid,
The Last Poets,
Unrelated Segments,
Desert Stars,
Yazoo,
Bill Wells,
The Gories,
Sandy B,
Tropical Tobacco,
Byron Stingily,
The Misunderstood,
Fear,
The Barracudas,
Slave,
The Modern Lovers,
The Kinks,
Whodini,
Cybotron,
Eric Copeland,
Vladislav Delay,
PIL,
Crooked Eye,
KRS-One,
Zapp,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Tremeloes,
Ronnie Foster,
Crime,
Altered Images,
Bill Near,
EPMD,
Can,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Zeros,
Saccharine Trust,
Laurel Aitken,
Henry Cow,
X-101,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Davy DMX,
Delta 5,
Wolf Eyes,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Cramps,
Minnie Riperton,
Massinfluence,
June Days,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Nas,
Absolute Body Control,
Johnny Osbourne,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Visage,
Franke,
The Motions,
The Golliwogs,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.