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 Sweden and from Tehran.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the sitar 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 The Sonics to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gang Gang Dance. All the underground hits.
All Surgeon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wolf Eyes 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 a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Gladiators,
The Residents,
Shoche,
Gerry Rafferty,
Man Eating Sloth,
the Normal,
Con Funk Shun,
Barrington Levy,
Parry Music,
Tim Buckley,
DJ Sneak,
Pole,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Judy Mowatt,
Crooked Eye,
Khruangbin,
Eric B and Rakim,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Tropical Tobacco,
Au Pairs,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Standells,
Hashim,
The Seeds,
Little Man,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Subhumans,
Smog,
James White and The Blacks,
Guru Guru,
Barbara Tucker,
Electric Prunes,
The Buckinghams,
Kenny Larkin,
Quantec,
Gabor Szabo,
The Angels of Light,
Magma,
Eden Ahbez,
June of 44,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Electric Prunes,
Josef K,
Eric Copeland,
Bootsy Collins,
These Immortal Souls,
Bronski Beat,
Cecil Taylor,
Reuben Wilson,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Swans,
Stereo Dub,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Marine Girls,
Flash Fearless,
Kool Moe Dee,
Lou Reed,
Lower 48,
Delon & Dalcan,
Throbbing Gristle,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.