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 Thailand and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Laurel Aitken to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 ABC. All the underground hits.
All Agent Orange tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boz Scaggs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light 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?
Hot Snakes,
Make Up,
Sixth Finger,
Johnny Clarke,
Marshall Jefferson,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ponytail,
David Axelrod,
The Neon Judgement,
EPMD,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Television,
Los Fastidios,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
T.S.O.L.,
Intrusion,
Schoolly D,
Pere Ubu,
Roxy Music,
Absolute Body Control,
Nirvana,
Jandek,
Marvin Gaye,
The Invisible,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Skaos,
Scion,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Agitation Free,
The Wake,
Nico,
The Vogues,
Essential Logic,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Von Mondo,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Joe Smooth,
Ultimate Spinach,
Negative Approach,
Slave,
China Crisis,
Lalo Schifrin,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Raincoats,
Minny Pops,
Main Source,
Black Bananas,
Fatback Band,
Leonard Cohen,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Eve St. Jones,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Human League,
The Saints,
Donny Hathaway,
Fear,
Moebius,
ABC,
Jeru the Damaja,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lee Hazlewood,
Darondo, Darondo, Darondo, Darondo.
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.