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 Armenia and from Jakarta.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Joe Finger to the punk 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 Joe Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Derrick Morgan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Flag 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spoonie Gee record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Traffic Nightmare,
the Fania All-Stars,
Suburban Knight,
Flash Fearless,
Curtis Mayfield,
Severed Heads,
Adolescents,
Bauhaus,
X-Ray Spex,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Bronski Beat,
The Buckinghams,
Accadde A,
The Invisible,
Johnny Clarke,
Porter Ricks,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Pulsallama,
Boogie Down Productions,
Leonard Cohen,
Peter & Gordon,
Tres Demented,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Litter,
Camberwell Now,
Charles Mingus,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Blues Magoos,
Archie Shepp,
Maleditus Sound,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Interpol,
the Bar-Kays,
Underground Resistance,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lalo Schifrin,
Bang On A Can,
F. McDonald,
The Fugs,
Can,
Aaron Thompson,
The Monks,
The Cure,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Iggy Pop,
Grandmaster Flash,
Index,
Frankie Knuckles,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Reuben Wilson,
The Cramps,
The Move,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sandy B,
China Crisis,
The Slackers,
Ultravox,
Intrusion,
Stetsasonic,
Cheater Slicks,
The United States of America,
Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms.
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.