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 Micronesia and from Columbus.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Velvet Underground to the crunk 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 Jimmy McGriff. All the underground hits.
All Jerry's Kids tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Green 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a T.S.O.L. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Boredoms,
Grandmaster Flash,
Trumans Water,
Mantronix,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Jesper Dahlback,
Connie Case,
The Trojans,
John Lydon,
Eve St. Jones,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Malaria!,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Sun Ra,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Depeche Mode,
Massinfluence,
Godley & Creme,
Blake Baxter,
A Certain Ratio,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dead Boys,
Freddie Wadling,
Cluster,
The Electric Prunes,
Pylon,
Black Bananas,
U.S. Maple,
Marshall Jefferson,
Lightning Bolt,
Wolf Eyes,
Harmonia,
Black Sheep,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Monochrome Set,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
H. Thieme,
Bob Dylan,
Ultimate Spinach,
Minnie Riperton,
Fluxion,
Joensuu 1685,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Smiths,
Soft Cell,
Fela Kuti,
Smog,
Bobby Womack,
Faraquet,
Pere Ubu,
The Durutti Column,
Sam Rivers,
The Black Dice,
Lou Reed,
The Mojo Men,
Swans,
Derrick Morgan,
Cymande,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.