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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Glasgow.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Monks to the jazz 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 Judy Mowatt. All the underground hits.
All Theoretical Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Slackers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
The Dirtbombs,
Smog,
Junior Murvin,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Massinfluence,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Wasted Youth,
Intrusion,
Sonic Youth,
Iggy Pop,
Gang Green,
Unwound,
The Seeds,
La Düsseldorf,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gong,
This Heat,
Josef K,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Joyce Sims,
Sight & Sound,
These Immortal Souls,
Lebanon Hanover,
Parry Music,
Amon Düül,
Harry Pussy,
Pet Shop Boys,
Y Pants,
June Days,
Susan Cadogan,
Graham Central Station,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Gang of Four,
Jeru the Damaja,
Dorothy Ashby,
Public Image Ltd.,
Crooked Eye,
Harmonia,
Henry Cow,
Lou Reed,
Schoolly D,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Dawn Penn,
Robert Hood,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Fortunes,
Beasts of Bourbon,
DNA,
The Velvet Underground,
Severed Heads,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Slick Rick,
Stereo Dub,
Kurtis Blow,
Alice Coltrane,
Kevin Saunderson,
Can,
The Blackbyrds,
Ken Boothe,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party.
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.