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 Finland and from Bologna.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Josef K to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Dead Boys. All the underground hits.
All Chris & Cosey tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flipper 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radiopuhelimet,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Bush Tetras,
The Music Machine,
Alton Ellis,
Funky Four + One,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Names,
Jandek,
The Move,
Ohio Players,
Oneida,
Au Pairs,
Kool Moe Dee,
Brothers Johnson,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Malaria!,
David Bowie,
Yellowson,
Camouflage,
Marvin Gaye,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ice-T,
Mars,
Lightning Bolt,
the Bar-Kays,
Wings,
Amon Düül II,
Skriet,
Sister Nancy,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Judy Mowatt,
Tim Buckley,
Gang Gang Dance,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Matthew Bourne,
Yaz,
Tubeway Army,
Scratch Acid,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
B.T. Express,
Q and Not U,
Glenn Branca,
Dead Boys,
Sight & Sound,
Eric Dolphy,
The Cowsills,
Excepter,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Alarm Clocks,
JFA,
Lalann,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Shoche,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Los Fastidios,
Barclay James Harvest,
Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic, Stetsasonic.
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.