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 Uzbekistan and from Taipei.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Ultramagnetic MC's. All the underground hits.
All the Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alice Coltrane 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a ABC record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
the Swans,
The Misunderstood,
Audionom,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
JFA,
John Cale,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Sun Ra,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Cramps,
Fela Kuti,
Marshall Jefferson,
Suicide,
Laurel Aitken,
Aaron Thompson,
Young Marble Giants,
Matthew Bourne,
Magma,
Moebius,
The Velvet Underground,
Unwound,
Girls At Our Best!,
David Bowie,
New Order,
X-102,
Dave Gahan,
Wire,
Lou Reed,
The Five Americans,
Ralphi Rosario,
Radiopuhelimet,
China Crisis,
Q65,
Gang of Four,
the Sonics,
The Mummies,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Davy DMX,
Soft Cell,
KRS-One,
Camberwell Now,
Boogie Down Productions,
Crime,
Khruangbin,
Intrusion,
Faraquet,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Durutti Column,
The Invisible,
Crispian St. Peters,
Aural Exciters,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Black Bananas,
La Düsseldorf,
Thee Headcoats,
Drive Like Jehu,
Mark Hollis,
Franke,
The Busters, The Busters, The Busters, The Busters.
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.