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 Nauru and from Calgary.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the theremin 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 Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Marvin Gaye. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tropical Tobacco 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
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 The Invisible record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Evens,
The Smoke,
Oblivians,
Jacques Brel,
Black Moon,
Mandrill,
Severed Heads,
Erykah Badu,
Bronski Beat,
Bill Near,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Smiths,
Lindisfarne,
Marine Girls,
Lightning Bolt,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Sonic Youth,
X-102,
Radiohead,
Banda Bassotti,
Magma,
Suicide,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
John Foxx,
The Residents,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Underground Resistance,
Vainqueur,
Judy Mowatt,
Surgeon,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Barbara Tucker,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sun City Girls,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Frankie Knuckles,
Masters at Work,
The Human League,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Glambeats Corp.,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Fortunes,
Ultra Naté,
Sällskapet,
Nik Kershaw,
Simply Red,
DJ Style,
Camouflage,
Derrick May,
R.M.O.,
Brass Construction,
Lou Christie,
Fat Boys,
Juan Atkins,
Lalo Schifrin,
Aloha Tigers,
Terrestrial Tones,
Sparks,
Moby Grape,
Barry Ungar,
Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell.
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.