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 Botswana and from Edmonton.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Electric Light Orchestra to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Todd Terry. All the underground hits.
All Gian Franco Pienzio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thompson Twins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Oneida,
Arthur Verocai,
The Pretty Things,
The Human League,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Bobby Byrd,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Black Bananas,
The Shadows of Knight,
Wasted Youth,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Jacques Brel,
Malaria!,
Grandmaster Flash,
Scrapy,
Los Fastidios,
Arcadia,
Symarip,
Cameo,
Half Japanese,
Gang Starr,
Bronski Beat,
Rod Modell,
Rotary Connection,
CMW,
Lucky Dragons,
Ossler,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Neil Young,
Lee Hazlewood,
Joyce Sims,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Surgeon,
The Star Department,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Rapeman,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Terry Callier,
Sexual Harrassment,
China Crisis,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
One Last Wish,
Eve St. Jones,
Robert Görl,
Gong,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Reagan Youth,
Scion,
The Neon Judgement,
Drive Like Jehu,
Rakim,
David Bowie,
Barclay James Harvest,
Donny Hathaway,
R.M.O.,
Piero Umiliani,
Blancmange,
Von Mondo,
Royal Trux, Royal Trux, Royal Trux, Royal Trux.
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.