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 Haiti and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 theremin 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 the Association to the punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Funky Four + One. All the underground hits.
All Ken Boothe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mark Hollis 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ossler,
Silicon Teens,
Magazine,
the Slits,
Boogie Down Productions,
Robert Görl,
Jerry Gold Smith,
KRS-One,
Alison Limerick,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Kurtis Blow,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Amon Düül II,
Archie Shepp,
Arcadia,
Joensuu 1685,
Marine Girls,
The Raincoats,
Clear Light,
Alice Coltrane,
The Knickerbockers,
Eurythmics,
One Last Wish,
Lou Christie,
cv313,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Sam Rivers,
Supertramp,
Rapeman,
Lindisfarne,
Shuggie Otis,
Amazonics,
Joey Negro,
Warsaw,
Easy Going,
Smog,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Lou Reed,
Livin' Joy,
Warren Ellis,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Don Cherry,
The Black Dice,
Johnny Osbourne,
Jandek,
JFA,
The Skatalites,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Joyce Sims,
Moebius,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Black Flag,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Ronan,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Leaves,
L. Decosne,
Pussy Galore,
Alton Ellis,
The Misunderstood,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Move,
Fear,
China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis.
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.