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 Ecuador and from Cairo.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 R.M.O. 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 Sun Ra Arkestra. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Sonics record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Goldenarms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Das Ding,
Intrusion,
E-Dancer,
Stetsasonic,
Aaron Thompson,
Technova,
Bang On A Can,
Sound Behaviour,
Sarah Menescal,
Kerri Chandler,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ponytail,
Banda Bassotti,
The Grass Roots,
Godley & Creme,
Lower 48,
Cecil Taylor,
Babytalk,
Radiohead,
Josef K,
John Cale,
Janne Schatter,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Duran Duran,
Rekid,
The Smiths,
Cybotron,
These Immortal Souls,
Hot Snakes,
The Zeros,
Gastr Del Sol,
Andrew Hill,
F. McDonald,
Deadbeat,
Anthony Braxton,
Alison Limerick,
Big Daddy Kane,
kango's stein massive,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Fortunes,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Leonard Cohen,
Matthew Halsall,
Bauhaus,
Roy Ayers,
The Slackers,
China Crisis,
The Misunderstood,
Pierre Henry,
The Selecter,
Theoretical Girls,
Black Pus,
Los Fastidios,
Khruangbin,
The United States of America,
Supertramp,
the Soft Cell,
Organ,
the Swans,
Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra.
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.