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 Hungary and from Mexico City.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin 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 Echospace to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Vaughan Mason & Crew tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Green record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Wells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pagans,
John Foxx,
Aural Exciters,
Howard Jones,
Skriet,
Reuben Wilson,
Lucky Dragons,
The Cowsills,
Sex Pistols,
Jandek,
Piero Umiliani,
Albert Ayler,
Pharoah Sanders,
Gang Gang Dance,
Lightning Bolt,
Black Flag,
Marshall Jefferson,
Bang On A Can,
Suburban Knight,
Electric Prunes,
Underground Resistance,
Warsaw,
The Gap Band,
Soft Cell,
Marmalade,
Rekid,
Oneida,
The Angels of Light,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Toni Rubio,
The Birthday Party,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Intrusion,
Moss Icon,
The Walker Brothers,
Rapeman,
David Axelrod,
Pantaleimon,
The Electric Prunes,
Main Source,
Circle Jerks,
Easy Going,
The Vogues,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Nico,
MC5,
JFA,
Carl Craig,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Stockholm Monsters,
Royal Trux,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Hasil Adkins,
The Buckinghams,
Franke,
Nils Olav,
Leonard Cohen,
Mad Mike,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Archie Shepp,
Ronnie Foster,
Theoretical Girls,
Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk.
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.