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 Vanuatu and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Royal Family And The Poor to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Kurtis Blow. All the underground hits.
All F. McDonald tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Leaves record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Von Mondo,
Erykah Badu,
The Gun Club,
Talk Talk,
The Evens,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Althea and Donna,
Youth Brigade,
Alice Coltrane,
Make Up,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Hot Snakes,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Mark Hollis,
Hashim,
Throbbing Gristle,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Colin Newman,
Accadde A,
Robert Görl,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Altered Images,
The Shadows of Knight,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Aural Exciters,
Curtis Mayfield,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rakim,
Anthony Braxton,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Seeds,
Alphaville,
Sister Nancy,
Joyce Sims,
Fear,
Skarface,
Interpol,
Pole,
Ossler,
Chris Corsano,
Unwound,
The Durutti Column,
World's Most,
The Techniques,
Tom Boy,
Television Personalities,
David McCallum,
Franke,
Dawn Penn,
Lalann,
Chrome,
Agent Orange,
Terry Callier,
Wasted Youth,
Lower 48,
Tubeway Army,
T. Rex,
Livin' Joy,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys.
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.