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 Monaco and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Philadelphia.
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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Jerry's Kids to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Funky Four + One. All the underground hits.
All Sugar Minott tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Teenage Jesus and the Jerks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oppenheimer Analysis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Germs,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Scientists,
Morten Harket,
Crooked Eye,
The Techniques,
Mandrill,
The Skatalites,
Excepter,
Sister Nancy,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Half Japanese,
Clear Light,
Traffic Nightmare,
Roger Hodgson,
June Days,
Lower 48,
Jacob Miller,
Hasil Adkins,
Sly & The Family Stone,
A Certain Ratio,
Judy Mowatt,
Ultra Naté,
Gil Scott Heron,
Marc Almond,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Searchers,
Kaleidoscope,
Susan Cadogan,
Jerry Gold Smith,
X-Ray Spex,
Harpers Bizarre,
Pharoah Sanders,
Crispian St. Peters,
Spandau Ballet,
Von Mondo,
The Detroit Cobras,
Curtis Mayfield,
Smog,
Bobby Byrd,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Monks,
Archie Shepp,
Lungfish,
Sparks,
The Music Machine,
Hardrive,
Joensuu 1685,
Johnny Osbourne,
Laurel Aitken,
Pet Shop Boys,
Technova,
Bronski Beat,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Public Enemy,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Tremeloes,
Scan 7,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Swans,
Au Pairs,
Soul II Soul,
Cal Tjader,
Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front.
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.