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 Tuvalu and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 808 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 Aaron Thompson to the dance 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 Drexciya. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Charles Mingus 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bronski Beat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Byrd,
Crispian St. Peters,
Model 500,
Surgeon,
Mad Mike,
Lightning Bolt,
Gang Starr,
Negative Approach,
Ultimate Spinach,
Mandrill,
DNA,
The Last Poets,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Black Dice,
Judy Mowatt,
Inner City,
The Litter,
the Soft Cell,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Toni Rubio,
Mark Hollis,
Oblivians,
the Germs,
Chris Corsano,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Gastr Del Sol,
Letta Mbulu,
The Fugs,
David Axelrod,
Ice-T,
Radiohead,
Grauzone,
the Association,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Grandmaster Flash,
Stetsasonic,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rites of Spring,
The Red Krayola,
Sällskapet,
Crooked Eye,
Monolake,
Youth Brigade,
Slave,
Bad Manners,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Hot Snakes,
Quadrant,
Gong,
Dark Day,
Leonard Cohen,
The Count Five,
Subhumans,
Trumans Water,
Arab on Radar,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Barracudas,
Flipper,
Sun Ra,
Arcadia,
Guru Guru,
Piero Umiliani,
Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne.
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.