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 Niger and from Accra.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Swell Maps to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All Ronan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Half Japanese record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aaron Thompson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Susan Cadogan,
The Raincoats,
T. Rex,
The Star Department,
The Knickerbockers,
Ornette Coleman,
Albert Ayler,
Black Moon,
Kas Product,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Fuzztones,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Alphaville,
The Trojans,
Motorama,
Leonard Cohen,
The Motions,
Barry Ungar,
Q65,
Massinfluence,
The Fall,
Pulsallama,
The Human League,
the Soft Cell,
Nils Olav,
The Litter,
Alice Coltrane,
Althea and Donna,
New Age Steppers,
Oneida,
Royal Trux,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Roger Hodgson,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Maurizio,
Iggy Pop,
Monks,
The Standells,
Gil Scott Heron,
Skriet,
Eddi Front,
Slick Rick,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Lee Hazlewood,
Von Mondo,
Dave Gahan,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Youth Brigade,
Flash Fearless,
Con Funk Shun,
Zero Boys,
Ronnie Foster,
Barbara Tucker,
Faust,
Robert Wyatt,
The Pretty Things,
Bootsy Collins,
Wings,
Blake Baxter,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pet Shop Boys,
Nik Kershaw,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.