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 Yemen and from Johannesburg.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Black Pus 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 10cc. All the underground hits.
All Hot Snakes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Alarm Clocks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Fear,
Bluetip,
Gang Starr,
Ohio Players,
China Crisis,
Con Funk Shun,
Television Personalities,
Jesper Dahlback,
Au Pairs,
The Vogues,
Subhumans,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Bill Near,
David McCallum,
Smog,
The Pretty Things,
Half Japanese,
U.S. Maple,
The Barracudas,
Iggy Pop,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Suicide,
A Certain Ratio,
Andrew Hill,
New Age Steppers,
Siglo XX,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Niagra,
Q and Not U,
Cameo,
Sugar Minott,
48th St. Collective,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Birthday Party,
Second Layer,
Gil Scott Heron,
UT,
Hoover,
Kurtis Blow,
Michelle Simonal,
Drexciya,
Joy Division,
Quando Quango,
Nik Kershaw,
The Moody Blues,
Marvin Gaye,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Fugazi,
Minutemen,
This Heat,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Crime,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Camouflage,
The Fortunes,
Dave Gahan,
Crash Course in Science,
Visage,
Carl Craig,
AZ,
Bill Wells,
Whodini,
The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings.
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.