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 Sri Lanka and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Salvador.
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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Soft Cell to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Drive Like Jehu. All the underground hits.
All Faraquet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lebanon Hanover 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scratch Acid,
Cheater Slicks,
Scion,
Byron Stingily,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Brand Nubian,
John Lydon,
Alice Coltrane,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Fuzztones,
Derrick May,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Brick,
Minutemen,
Quantec,
Ice-T,
Crispy Ambulance,
Monks,
Quando Quango,
Arab on Radar,
The Beau Brummels,
Man Eating Sloth,
Easy Going,
Niagra,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Moby Grape,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Avey Tare,
Black Sheep,
Gabor Szabo,
Lebanon Hanover,
Skarface,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Associates,
Nico,
Moss Icon,
Talk Talk,
Severed Heads,
Agitation Free,
Ronnie Foster,
The Seeds,
Peter & Gordon,
Scientists,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Roxette,
Stetsasonic,
Babytalk,
Ash Ra Tempel,
L. Decosne,
Curtis Mayfield,
Gang of Four,
Funky Four + One,
Sight & Sound,
Derrick Morgan,
Grey Daturas,
Depeche Mode,
Shoche,
Sandy B,
Patti Smith,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Morten Harket,
Terrestrial Tones,
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.