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 Zimbabwe and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Absolute Body Control to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Fad Gadget tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gladiators 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marshall Jefferson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Searchers,
Sam Rivers,
Maurizio,
The Star Department,
Smog,
Visage,
CMW,
Gang Starr,
Ornette Coleman,
the Bar-Kays,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Aural Exciters,
Swans,
The Grass Roots,
Tropical Tobacco,
Alice Coltrane,
Wally Richardson,
OOIOO,
Dennis Brown,
Radiohead,
John Lydon,
Ralphi Rosario,
Subhumans,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ituana,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Pussy Galore,
Gabor Szabo,
Fad Gadget,
Sixth Finger,
The Pretty Things,
Fort Wilson Riot,
kango's stein massive,
Peter and Kerry,
Radio Birdman,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Slick Rick,
KRS-One,
Grandmaster Flash,
Massinfluence,
New Order,
Soft Machine,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Warren Ellis,
Jeru the Damaja,
Brothers Johnson,
Technova,
Babytalk,
The Mummies,
Scratch Acid,
Index,
Donny Hathaway,
Fugazi,
The Beau Brummels,
The Names,
Tres Demented,
Basic Channel,
Trumans Water,
Radiopuhelimet,
Tomorrow,
Masters at Work,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.