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 Korea North and from Houston.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 clarinet 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 Tom Boy to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Monks. All the underground hits.
All Stockholm Monsters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Velvet Underground record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 marimba and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barclay James Harvest record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Alarm Clocks,
Matthew Halsall,
Ludus,
Soft Cell,
Outsiders,
Scion,
the Germs,
Wally Richardson,
Popol Vuh,
Unwound,
The Dave Clark Five,
Excepter,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Standells,
Arthur Verocai,
Chris & Cosey,
Bobby Sherman,
Jacques Brel,
the Soft Cell,
the Human League,
Au Pairs,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Carl Craig,
Adolescents,
Bang On A Can,
Swans,
Moby Grape,
James White and The Blacks,
Grauzone,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Skatalites,
Hashim,
Drexciya,
Bad Manners,
X-102,
the Slits,
Essential Logic,
The Saints,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Junior Murvin,
Pylon,
John Coltrane,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Wasted Youth,
Mantronix,
Donny Hathaway,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Black Dice,
Dark Day,
The Modern Lovers,
Dual Sessions,
The Sound,
Smog,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Eric Copeland,
Gil Scott Heron,
Toni Rubio,
Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes, Isaac Hayes.
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.