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 Solomon Islands and from Johannesburg.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Funkadelic to the dance 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 Wally Richardson. All the underground hits.
All the Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Electric Prunes 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Colin Newman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeru the Damaja,
Chrome,
Babytalk,
The Fortunes,
Crispian St. Peters,
Japan,
This Heat,
Dawn Penn,
Nik Kershaw,
June of 44,
Oneida,
Jandek,
Jerry's Kids,
Infiniti,
Barbara Tucker,
The Real Kids,
Sex Pistols,
Drexciya,
Sonny Sharrock,
Lebanon Hanover,
Unwound,
Robert Görl,
Brass Construction,
Massinfluence,
Kevin Saunderson,
Yazoo,
Lee Hazlewood,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Amazonics,
Stockholm Monsters,
Piero Umiliani,
Lyres,
Jeff Mills,
ABBA,
Alton Ellis,
Curtis Mayfield,
Johnny Clarke,
The Pretty Things,
48th St. Collective,
Subhumans,
Organ,
Sonic Youth,
Accadde A,
The Smoke,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Seeds,
The Moleskins,
R.M.O.,
Sound Behaviour,
Girls At Our Best!,
Gerry Rafferty,
Ituana,
China Crisis,
Gastr Del Sol,
Pagans,
Reagan Youth,
Gregory Isaacs,
Brothers Johnson,
T.S.O.L.,
Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat, Bronski Beat.
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.