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 Australia and from Shanghai.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Tokyo.
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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the marimba 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 Ken Boothe to the rap 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 Youth Brigade. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 808 and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Standells,
Frankie Knuckles,
Royal Trux,
Derrick Morgan,
Echospace,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
T.S.O.L.,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Crispy Ambulance,
the Swans,
Tropical Tobacco,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Hot Snakes,
Robert Görl,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Bluetip,
Josef K,
Alice Coltrane,
John Coltrane,
The Vogues,
Inner City,
Essential Logic,
E-Dancer,
Slave,
Panda Bear,
DJ Style,
Boogie Down Productions,
Motorama,
Gastr Del Sol,
Jeff Mills,
Scott Walker,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Ultravox,
Scan 7,
Stockholm Monsters,
Johnny Clarke,
The Fortunes,
Suicide,
X-101,
The Cowsills,
Ultimate Spinach,
Arab on Radar,
the Bar-Kays,
Wasted Youth,
Urselle,
The Evens,
Gang Gang Dance,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Gories,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Laurel Aitken,
The Skatalites,
The Golliwogs,
DJ Sneak,
Funkadelic,
Spoonie Gee,
Robert Hood,
Bauhaus,
Susan Cadogan,
Symarip, Symarip, Symarip, Symarip.
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.