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 Brunei and from Hong Kong.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the 808 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 Rhythm & Sound to the techno 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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Iggy Pop tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Q and Not U record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Infiniti,
Camberwell Now,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Davy DMX,
Juan Atkins,
Sällskapet,
Cecil Taylor,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Slackers,
Mark Hollis,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Real Kids,
Rites of Spring,
Joe Smooth,
MC5,
Bobby Byrd,
Albert Ayler,
The Offenders,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
the Germs,
Brand Nubian,
The Skatalites,
Mantronix,
Avey Tare,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
D'Angelo,
Suicide,
Hot Snakes,
LL Cool J,
Interpol,
Funkadelic,
The Kinks,
Nas,
Matthew Bourne,
The Gladiators,
Television,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Amazonics,
Stiv Bators,
Scott Walker,
Boz Scaggs,
China Crisis,
Barbara Tucker,
Bad Manners,
The Mummies,
The Blackbyrds,
Echospace,
Pere Ubu,
The Raincoats,
Sugar Minott,
Chris Corsano,
Steve Hackett,
Lungfish,
Janne Schatter,
Big Daddy Kane,
Andrew Hill,
June of 44,
Stereo Dub,
Suburban Knight,
Sight & Sound,
Angry Samoans,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.