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 Ecuador and from Madrid.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Swans to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Steve Hackett tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sex Pistols record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tom Boy,
Rites of Spring,
Aural Exciters,
Harry Pussy,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Pharoah Sanders,
Yusef Lateef,
Michelle Simonal,
Kerri Chandler,
Livin' Joy,
Eden Ahbez,
Eurythmics,
Blossom Toes,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sam Rivers,
Erasure,
The Searchers,
Roxy Music,
Oblivians,
The Kinks,
Nation of Ulysses,
Johnny Clarke,
The Tremeloes,
Outsiders,
The Monks,
Delta 5,
Urselle,
John Coltrane,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Unwound,
Crispy Ambulance,
Henry Cow,
Fugazi,
Reagan Youth,
Wire,
Toni Rubio,
Grauzone,
Jesper Dahlback,
Dawn Penn,
Duran Duran,
Todd Rundgren,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Tropical Tobacco,
Brand Nubian,
The Martian,
Crispian St. Peters,
Cameo,
Guru Guru,
Sonic Youth,
Dual Sessions,
Bronski Beat,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Joy Division,
Thompson Twins,
Crime,
Barclay James Harvest,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lalann,
Lalo Schifrin,
Bill Near, Bill Near, Bill Near, Bill Near.
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.