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 Grenada and from Delhi.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Faust to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Ronnie Foster. All the underground hits.
All Inner City tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Patti Smith 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Section 25 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Rufus Thomas,
The Cowsills,
Todd Rundgren,
Tomorrow,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Star Department,
Glenn Branca,
Essential Logic,
Lightning Bolt,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Laurel Aitken,
Pet Shop Boys,
Bronski Beat,
LL Cool J,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
E-Dancer,
Electric Prunes,
Freddie Wadling,
Whodini,
The Real Kids,
Rosa Yemen,
Sight & Sound,
Public Enemy,
Ossler,
Mandrill,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Grass Roots,
Lindisfarne,
Funky Four + One,
Ultra Naté,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Blake Baxter,
The American Breed,
Charles Mingus,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Chris & Cosey,
Joyce Sims,
Theoretical Girls,
Black Bananas,
Gang Green,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Schoolly D,
Lebanon Hanover,
Archie Shepp,
F. McDonald,
The Pretty Things,
Girls At Our Best!,
PIL,
Wally Richardson,
Robert Hood,
Radio Birdman,
Panda Bear,
Glambeats Corp.,
Organ,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Eden Ahbez,
Mission of Burma,
New Age Steppers,
X-102,
Cameo, Cameo, Cameo, Cameo.
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.