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 Kiribati and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Eurythmics. All the underground hits.
All Fifty Foot Hose tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nation of Ulysses 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Wake record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Infiniti,
Colin Newman,
David Axelrod,
Brick,
Unrelated Segments,
Yellowson,
Matthew Halsall,
ABC,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Funky Four + One,
The Searchers,
Dawn Penn,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Black Bananas,
Mantronix,
Byron Stingily,
Deadbeat,
The Misunderstood,
Pylon,
Drive Like Jehu,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Barry Ungar,
New York Dolls,
Stereo Dub,
X-Ray Spex,
China Crisis,
Erasure,
Johnny Osbourne,
Michelle Simonal,
Chrome,
The Divine Comedy,
Bad Manners,
Delon & Dalcan,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
PIL,
Eric B and Rakim,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Pantaleimon,
Alice Coltrane,
The Litter,
Josef K,
Blossom Toes,
Absolute Body Control,
Flash Fearless,
Laurel Aitken,
Ultravox,
Leonard Cohen,
Ken Boothe,
Con Funk Shun,
The Knickerbockers,
Vainqueur,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Sixth Finger,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Moleskins,
Agitation Free,
Shoche,
The American Breed,
John Coltrane,
Model 500,
the Swans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.