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 Malawi and from Hong Kong.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The New Christs to the crunk 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 Jacob Miller. All the underground hits.
All Ohio Players tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Louis and Bebe Barron record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aural Exciters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Max Romeo,
Derrick Morgan,
The Dead C,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Zapp,
Bauhaus,
Fela Kuti,
Lee Hazlewood,
Letta Mbulu,
MC5,
Duran Duran,
Gerry Rafferty,
Rapeman,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Arcadia,
Ohio Players,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ten City,
Heaven 17,
Liliput,
The Gun Club,
The Toasters,
Scrapy,
The Last Poets,
Echospace,
Jawbox,
H. Thieme,
Television Personalities,
Rites of Spring,
The Associates,
the Normal,
Hardrive,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Iggy Pop,
Blake Baxter,
Monks,
LL Cool J,
The Angels of Light,
Newcleus,
Black Pus,
The Happenings,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Steve Hackett,
The Flesh Eaters,
Pere Ubu,
Pulsallama,
The Leaves,
The Pretty Things,
Half Japanese,
Franke,
The Tremeloes,
Glambeats Corp.,
Lou Reed,
The Gap Band,
Man Eating Sloth,
Wasted Youth,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Alton Ellis,
New York Dolls,
Boogie Down Productions, Boogie Down Productions, Boogie Down Productions, Boogie Down Productions.
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.