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 Romania and from Manchester.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Cairo.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 F. McDonald to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 D'Angelo. All the underground hits.
All Gang Starr tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Beau Brummels 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Babytalk,
Brand Nubian,
Das Ding,
Ultimate Spinach,
Echospace,
Nick Fraelich,
Pantaleimon,
Essential Logic,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Fugazi,
Crash Course in Science,
Peter & Gordon,
The Cramps,
Skriet,
The Real Kids,
John Holt,
Can,
Scion,
The Barracudas,
John Foxx,
Vainqueur,
Deakin,
the Sonics,
X-102,
Archie Shepp,
Sugar Minott,
Nils Olav,
Pulsallama,
Swell Maps,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Mary Jane Girls,
Eden Ahbez,
Gerry Rafferty,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Amazonics,
the Slits,
Urselle,
Robert Wyatt,
Don Cherry,
Quantec,
Terry Callier,
The Leaves,
Harpers Bizarre,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Cymande,
CMW,
The Martian,
Wasted Youth,
Gabor Szabo,
Moebius,
Easy Going,
Robert Hood,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Johnny Osbourne,
Loose Ends,
Harry Pussy,
Big Daddy Kane,
Slick Rick,
Surgeon,
New York Dolls,
the Human League,
Scan 7,
Nation of Ulysses,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.