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 Laos and from Jakarta.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Joey Negro to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Fad Gadget. All the underground hits.
All the Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Hill,
Ronan,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Warren Ellis,
Donny Hathaway,
Pantaleimon,
Pagans,
Prince Buster,
The Fortunes,
Grey Daturas,
Young Marble Giants,
Can,
Whodini,
Josef K,
The Raincoats,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Leonard Cohen,
Black Pus,
Amon Düül II,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Count Five,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
X-102,
Cecil Taylor,
AZ,
Mantronix,
The Pop Group,
The Sound,
Swans,
Aaron Thompson,
Soft Cell,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Erykah Badu,
Jerry's Kids,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Ultra Naté,
Steve Hackett,
F. McDonald,
The Black Dice,
The Angels of Light,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Searchers,
Nico,
In Retrospect,
the Association,
Matthew Bourne,
Interpol,
Monks,
Boogie Down Productions,
H. Thieme,
D'Angelo,
Skriet,
Sugar Minott,
Gong,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lightning Bolt,
Scion,
Television,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Invisible,
Boz Scaggs,
The Last Poets,
Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown.
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.