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 Cambodia and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Manila.
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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Slick Rick to the techno 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 Tubeway Army. All the underground hits.
All The Birthday Party tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Smog 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 an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Litter,
The Selecter,
Black Pus,
Terrestrial Tones,
Hoover,
Hot Snakes,
Sonny Sharrock,
Tomorrow,
World's Most,
Stereo Dub,
Das Ding,
Lucky Dragons,
Negative Approach,
Kaleidoscope,
Alison Limerick,
The Shadows of Knight,
Scott Walker,
Avey Tare,
The Mummies,
Parry Music,
Half Japanese,
Josef K,
Bronski Beat,
KRS-One,
Warren Ellis,
Swell Maps,
Vainqueur,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Boredoms,
Young Marble Giants,
Pole,
Ornette Coleman,
Spandau Ballet,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
R.M.O.,
Archie Shepp,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Johnny Osbourne,
Soul Sonic Force,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Erykah Badu,
Black Moon,
Flipper,
The Durutti Column,
Nico,
New Age Steppers,
Colin Newman,
The Last Poets,
Jawbox,
Crooked Eye,
Al Stewart,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Gregory Isaacs,
Slick Rick,
Buzzcocks,
The Five Americans,
Easy Going,
Can,
Von Mondo,
Howard Jones,
Procol Harum,
Lou Reed,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.