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 Korea South and from Accra.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Smoke to the funk 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 June of 44. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop 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 snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Golliwogs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tres Demented,
Archie Shepp,
Electric Prunes,
Godley & Creme,
Albert Ayler,
Camouflage,
David McCallum,
The Gories,
Tomorrow,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Charles Mingus,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Symarip,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mary Jane Girls,
Buzzcocks,
In Retrospect,
Gang Green,
Neil Young,
Gong,
Neu!,
Boredoms,
Gang Starr,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Dark Day,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Sonics,
Deadbeat,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Q and Not U,
Underground Resistance,
Rufus Thomas,
Traffic Nightmare,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Wally Richardson,
Dawn Penn,
Desert Stars,
Bootsy Collins,
F. McDonald,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Bronski Beat,
U.S. Maple,
Monks,
The Flesh Eaters,
Easy Going,
Basic Channel,
Wings,
Anakelly,
Gang Gang Dance,
Schoolly D,
The Red Krayola,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
the Normal,
Bob Dylan,
Brand Nubian,
This Heat,
the Slits,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Joyce Sims,
Sam Rivers,
The Martian,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.