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 Equatorial Guinea 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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Stockholm.
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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Curtis Mayfield to the grunge 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 the Normal. All the underground hits.
All Barclay James Harvest tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kango’s Stein Massive record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a L. Decosne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tears for Fears,
OOIOO,
Ultravox,
The Happenings,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Alice Coltrane,
Spandau Ballet,
Vladislav Delay,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Lalo Schifrin,
Ultra Naté,
The Smiths,
Jeff Mills,
The Young Rascals,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Joensuu 1685,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Depeche Mode,
Marc Almond,
Altered Images,
Magazine,
Franke,
Janne Schatter,
Duran Duran,
Minutemen,
Japan,
Patti Smith,
Jeru the Damaja,
DJ Sneak,
The Blackbyrds,
Pere Ubu,
Ronnie Foster,
The Velvet Underground,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Blancmange,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Wings,
Hardrive,
Basic Channel,
Lower 48,
Main Source,
Suicide,
Unwound,
Robert Wyatt,
Rakim,
Bizarre Inc.,
Fat Boys,
The Monks,
Ultimate Spinach,
La Düsseldorf,
Rod Modell,
Mandrill,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
U.S. Maple,
the Human League,
Circle Jerks,
Intrusion,
The Count Five,
Nico,
Bang On A Can,
Archie Shepp,
Reagan Youth,
Lightning Bolt,
Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis, Alton Ellis.
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.