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 Uganda and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide show in New York.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 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 Crispian St. Peters to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Eyeless In Gaza. All the underground hits.
All The Invisible tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Busters,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Delta 5,
Arab on Radar,
Absolute Body Control,
Ossler,
PIL,
Yaz,
the Association,
Bronski Beat,
Interpol,
Yellowson,
Rosa Yemen,
The Residents,
Saccharine Trust,
Pole,
Junior Murvin,
This Heat,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Sister Nancy,
The Black Dice,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Mummies,
Charles Mingus,
The Pretty Things,
The Litter,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Animal Collective,
Young Marble Giants,
The Music Machine,
John Holt,
Urselle,
Hoover,
Faust,
The Kinks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Anthony Braxton,
The Techniques,
Gang Green,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Selecter,
Aaron Thompson,
Throbbing Gristle,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Los Fastidios,
Chrome,
Jacques Brel,
Duran Duran,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Cramps,
Erykah Badu,
Scientists,
The Smoke,
AZ,
a-ha,
The Fall,
Rakim,
Au Pairs,
Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant.
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.