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 Sri Lanka and from Mumbai.
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 Woodstock and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Slits to the funk 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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All the Normal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Moody Blues record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an oboe 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 mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eden Ahbez,
Wire,
Rosa Yemen,
Al Stewart,
La Düsseldorf,
Vainqueur,
Unwound,
Rakim,
Con Funk Shun,
Juan Atkins,
Zero Boys,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Human League,
Ossler,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Beau Brummels,
Fela Kuti,
Flipper,
The Neon Judgement,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
A Certain Ratio,
The Gladiators,
Patti Smith,
the Bar-Kays,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sandy B,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Subhumans,
X-Ray Spex,
Marine Girls,
DJ Sneak,
Rod Modell,
ABC,
Sex Pistols,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Hot Snakes,
Public Enemy,
David Bowie,
The Doors,
Amon Düül II,
cv313,
The Moleskins,
Tim Buckley,
Erasure,
Eddi Front,
Wally Richardson,
Drive Like Jehu,
Royal Trux,
Sarah Menescal,
Max Romeo,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Minor Threat,
The Pop Group,
Barrington Levy,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Skatalites,
Agent Orange,
Matthew Bourne,
Black Bananas,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ituana, Ituana, Ituana, Ituana.
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.