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 Tonga and from Beijing.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the linndrum 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 The Fall to the punk 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 Eric B and Rakim. All the underground hits.
All Little Man tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shuggie Otis 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Q65 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Leaves,
Glambeats Corp.,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Glenn Branca,
Susan Cadogan,
The Monochrome Set,
Amon Düül,
Ossler,
Pere Ubu,
Donny Hathaway,
Yaz,
The Gories,
The Litter,
Anthony Braxton,
Second Layer,
Technova,
Alice Coltrane,
Amazonics,
PIL,
Stiv Bators,
Crispian St. Peters,
Excepter,
Groovy Waters,
the Bar-Kays,
Camberwell Now,
Hot Snakes,
Crooked Eye,
L. Decosne,
Agitation Free,
Eric Dolphy,
Sugar Minott,
Black Pus,
Delon & Dalcan,
Yellowson,
Boz Scaggs,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Residents,
Curtis Mayfield,
Ludus,
Neu!,
Lalann,
The Zeros,
The Count Five,
Brothers Johnson,
The Tremeloes,
Minutemen,
Whodini,
Pole,
Flamin' Groovies,
Roy Ayers,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Little Man,
Lebanon Hanover,
Youth Brigade,
Inner City,
Hoover,
Boredoms,
Absolute Body Control,
Brick, Brick, Brick, Brick.
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.