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 Benin and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Matthew Bourne to the techno 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 The Vogues. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Don Cherry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Agent Orange record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Stooges,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Ornette Coleman,
The Offenders,
Porter Ricks,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Negative Approach,
Henry Cow,
China Crisis,
Malaria!,
Second Layer,
Main Source,
The Neon Judgement,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Amazonics,
Rakim,
Severed Heads,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Rufus Thomas,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fatback Band,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Marvin Gaye,
This Heat,
Laurel Aitken,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Zero Boys,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Saints,
Qualms,
The Birthday Party,
Hoover,
Heaven 17,
Brand Nubian,
Goldenarms,
Groovy Waters,
Pole,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Happenings,
Lou Christie,
48th St. Collective,
Quando Quango,
The Cowsills,
Dead Boys,
Sällskapet,
Moebius,
The Monochrome Set,
Crooked Eye,
Sight & Sound,
Bootsy Collins,
Thompson Twins,
Max Romeo,
Tears for Fears,
Jandek,
Curtis Mayfield,
X-101,
The Golliwogs,
John Holt,
Jeff Lynne,
Grauzone,
Organ,
Funky Four + One,
Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy.
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.