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 China and from Johannesburg.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Gang Green to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Suicide. All the underground hits.
All Al Stewart tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every June Days record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Simply Red record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roxy Music,
Yusef Lateef,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Eden Ahbez,
The Fall,
The Selecter,
Mark Hollis,
Erykah Badu,
The Doobie Brothers,
Depeche Mode,
48th St. Collective,
The Tremeloes,
Main Source,
Donald Byrd,
The Cowsills,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Suburban Knight,
The Saints,
Rotary Connection,
Juan Atkins,
Angry Samoans,
The United States of America,
Newcleus,
Circle Jerks,
Soulsonic Force,
Colin Newman,
Steve Hackett,
David Bowie,
Niagra,
The Music Machine,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ultimate Spinach,
Throbbing Gristle,
Joe Smooth,
Nico,
Sly & The Family Stone,
X-Ray Spex,
Kool Moe Dee,
Pussy Galore,
Babytalk,
The Divine Comedy,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Derrick May,
Country Teasers,
The Leaves,
ABC,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Man Parrish,
Severed Heads,
Grey Daturas,
Monks,
Blossom Toes,
Aural Exciters,
Silicon Teens,
Pulsallama,
Eurythmics,
Visage,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Q65,
Scion,
Make Up, Make Up, Make Up, Make Up.
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.