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 Angola 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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Calgary.
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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the güiro 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 Monks to the rap 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 The Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Q65 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Dave Clark Five 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tom Boy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skriet,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Judy Mowatt,
ABBA,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
10cc,
Rites of Spring,
Duran Duran,
Delta 5,
Cecil Taylor,
LL Cool J,
Minutemen,
Patti Smith,
the Soft Cell,
Magma,
Massinfluence,
The United States of America,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Velvet Underground,
Michelle Simonal,
Nick Fraelich,
Arthur Verocai,
Q and Not U,
OOIOO,
Joyce Sims,
Ponytail,
Panda Bear,
T.S.O.L.,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Vogues,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Cameo,
the Bar-Kays,
Frankie Knuckles,
Scion,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Crooked Eye,
The Slackers,
La Düsseldorf,
The Busters,
China Crisis,
F. McDonald,
Television Personalities,
Kerri Chandler,
Warren Ellis,
John Coltrane,
Model 500,
Max Romeo,
Roxy Music,
the Swans,
The Cowsills,
Rotary Connection,
Hot Snakes,
The Gladiators,
The Litter,
Harpers Bizarre,
Magazine,
Maleditus Sound,
Minor Threat,
The Black Dice,
Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May.
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.