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 Lesotho and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Lyon.
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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Fifty Foot Hose to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Maurizio. All the underground hits.
All David Bowie tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hardrive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sad Lovers and Giants,
U.S. Maple,
Iggy Pop,
Mo-Dettes,
Unwound,
Scrapy,
Leonard Cohen,
Eric B and Rakim,
Bizarre Inc.,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Swell Maps,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Eli Mardock,
Harpers Bizarre,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sex Pistols,
a-ha,
FM Einheit,
Pere Ubu,
Sonny Sharrock,
Steve Hackett,
Swans,
Vladislav Delay,
Cheater Slicks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Clear Light,
Surgeon,
Rapeman,
Crash Course in Science,
Colin Newman,
Ken Boothe,
Flash Fearless,
Amon Düül,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Durutti Column,
Roxette,
Public Enemy,
DNA,
The J.B.'s,
Eve St. Jones,
Crooked Eye,
David McCallum,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bob Dylan,
Jimmy McGriff,
Thee Headcoats,
Radio Birdman,
AZ,
Junior Murvin,
Black Flag,
Scientists,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Essential Logic,
Mad Mike,
the Sonics,
Zapp,
Radiohead,
The Index,
Echospace, Echospace, Echospace, Echospace.
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.