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 Tanzania and from Manila.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Surgeon to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Warren Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Aural Exciters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Byrd 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Matthew Bourne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cluster,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ronnie Foster,
Neil Young,
Tim Buckley,
Don Cherry,
Dorothy Ashby,
Girls At Our Best!,
Henry Cow,
Symarip,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Drive Like Jehu,
June of 44,
Simply Red,
Nas,
The Velvet Underground,
Swell Maps,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Victims,
Big Daddy Kane,
Ralphi Rosario,
Wasted Youth,
Tropical Tobacco,
Cameo,
Sister Nancy,
Harry Pussy,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Nik Kershaw,
Angry Samoans,
Vainqueur,
Eric Copeland,
The Dave Clark Five,
Index,
Altered Images,
Crispian St. Peters,
Crime,
Idris Muhammad,
Rufus Thomas,
Avey Tare,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Guru Guru,
One Last Wish,
Urselle,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Boz Scaggs,
June Days,
Porter Ricks,
Mad Mike,
The Names,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Main Source,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Half Japanese,
Lou Reed,
The Raincoats,
Khruangbin,
The Offenders,
Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron.
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.