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 Seychelles and from Sao Paulo.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Lagos.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Groovy Waters to the punk 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 Panda Bear. All the underground hits.
All Loose Ends tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Litter 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Osbourne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scion,
The Selecter,
David McCallum,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Black Sheep,
Metal Thangz,
Cal Tjader,
T. Rex,
The Associates,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Country Teasers,
Sex Pistols,
Malaria!,
This Heat,
the Germs,
Joyce Sims,
Circle Jerks,
Faraquet,
Fatback Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Smoke,
Delta 5,
DJ Style,
Sound Behaviour,
Lyres,
Warren Ellis,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Last Poets,
Glenn Branca,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
T.S.O.L.,
Fad Gadget,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Cameo,
Qualms,
Fear,
Althea and Donna,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Donald Byrd,
Sparks,
The Motions,
The Vogues,
Gastr Del Sol,
Trumans Water,
John Cale,
Grandmaster Flash,
Smog,
Bush Tetras,
The Move,
Alice Coltrane,
Amon Düül II,
Drive Like Jehu,
Neu!,
James White and The Blacks,
Pylon,
Quantec,
Charles Mingus,
Urselle,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.