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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Gil Scott Heron to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eden Ahbez record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kango’s Stein Massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Dolphy,
Scrapy,
Deakin,
Television Personalities,
Stetsasonic,
Excepter,
Traffic Nightmare,
Half Japanese,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Golliwogs,
Laurel Aitken,
Blancmange,
Severed Heads,
Cybotron,
Los Fastidios,
Junior Murvin,
The Real Kids,
Eddi Front,
Inner City,
Jeff Lynne,
Flash Fearless,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Durutti Column,
June of 44,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Rod Modell,
Todd Terry,
Scientists,
Drive Like Jehu,
Animal Collective,
Albert Ayler,
Rekid,
David Axelrod,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Divine Comedy,
Eurythmics,
LL Cool J,
Matthew Halsall,
Gastr Del Sol,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Soft Machine,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Ohio Players,
The Toasters,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Barbara Tucker,
Steve Hackett,
Erykah Badu,
The Busters,
Interpol,
The New Christs,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Monks,
Franke,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Susan Cadogan,
Cheater Slicks,
Danielle Patucci,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight.
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.