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 Sri Lanka and from Shanghai.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the oboe 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 H. Thieme to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Livin' Joy. All the underground hits.
All Subhumans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Black Dice record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brothers Johnson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Bang On A Can,
Prince Buster,
Minny Pops,
The Gun Club,
Bill Near,
Subhumans,
ABC,
The Neon Judgement,
Chrome,
Fatback Band,
Dual Sessions,
The Searchers,
Gang of Four,
Blake Baxter,
The Wake,
Arab on Radar,
Albert Ayler,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Skatalites,
Moss Icon,
Cheater Slicks,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
KRS-One,
Maurizio,
Rufus Thomas,
Boogie Down Productions,
Judy Mowatt,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
D'Angelo,
Kaleidoscope,
The Kinks,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Modern Lovers,
Robert Wyatt,
Scan 7,
World's Most,
Lungfish,
Wire,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
CMW,
The Last Poets,
The Trojans,
Laurel Aitken,
Stereo Dub,
Chris & Cosey,
Susan Cadogan,
Ice-T,
Nation of Ulysses,
Gregory Isaacs,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Fear,
This Heat,
Rosa Yemen,
Ten City,
JFA,
Joy Division,
Lalann,
Siglo XX,
Quando Quango,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.