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 Marshall Islands and from Edmonton.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bill Near to the crunk 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 Lungfish. All the underground hits.
All Negative Approach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Television Personalities 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boogie Down Productions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Evens,
EPMD,
Boz Scaggs,
The Doors,
Cymande,
Quando Quango,
Nation of Ulysses,
kango's stein massive,
The Gladiators,
Sarah Menescal,
The Durutti Column,
Qualms,
John Coltrane,
Symarip,
David Axelrod,
The Blackbyrds,
Negative Approach,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Ken Boothe,
Half Japanese,
Joy Division,
Main Source,
Glenn Branca,
Clear Light,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Metal Thangz,
Aural Exciters,
Q and Not U,
Boogie Down Productions,
Piero Umiliani,
Eurythmics,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Accadde A,
The Gun Club,
X-Ray Spex,
MDC,
Tubeway Army,
Tears for Fears,
Funky Four + One,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Gap Band,
Idris Muhammad,
Soft Cell,
Adolescents,
The Human League,
Letta Mbulu,
K-Klass,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Raincoats,
ABBA,
Scott Walker,
Agitation Free,
CMW,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Tres Demented,
The Fire Engines,
Stockholm Monsters,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.