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 Mauritania and from Milan.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Accra.
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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Judy Mowatt to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Pulsallama. All the underground hits.
All UT tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cal Tjader 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gladiators record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Von Mondo,
Fela Kuti,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
a-ha,
Thompson Twins,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Circle Jerks,
Tres Demented,
Tom Boy,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Moleskins,
Sandy B,
Brass Construction,
Camberwell Now,
Black Pus,
Shoche,
Radiopuhelimet,
Wire,
Desert Stars,
The Gap Band,
Pagans,
Deepchord,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Banda Bassotti,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Motorama,
Echospace,
Ken Boothe,
Pierre Henry,
Sun Ra,
Model 500,
Mars,
Roxette,
The Shadows of Knight,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Oblivians,
Blancmange,
The Victims,
H. Thieme,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Derrick Morgan,
Junior Murvin,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Donald Byrd,
John Cale,
Tim Buckley,
The Raincoats,
Surgeon,
Q65,
The Cure,
Pussy Galore,
Eve St. Jones,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Boz Scaggs,
Guru Guru,
The Count Five,
Stiv Bators,
Glenn Branca,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Searchers,
The Alarm Clocks,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.