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 Greece and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 arpeggiator 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 Terrestrial Tones to the punk 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 The Flesh Eaters. All the underground hits.
All Funky Four + One tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scott Walker + Sunn O))) 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alice Coltrane record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Martian,
the Swans,
Sonny Sharrock,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Danielle Patucci,
Oblivians,
Cameo,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
ABC,
8 Eyed Spy,
Nation of Ulysses,
Mary Jane Girls,
Simply Red,
Peter and Kerry,
Pulsallama,
Half Japanese,
The Last Poets,
Dorothy Ashby,
Grauzone,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Bill Near,
T.S.O.L.,
Los Fastidios,
AZ,
Chrome,
Rufus Thomas,
The Flesh Eaters,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Boz Scaggs,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Groovy Waters,
F. McDonald,
John Lydon,
Jerry's Kids,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Max Romeo,
Quando Quango,
Isaac Hayes,
the Soft Cell,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Radio Birdman,
Buzzcocks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
MC5,
Q and Not U,
Neu!,
Sugar Minott,
Matthew Bourne,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bill Wells,
The Selecter,
B.T. Express,
Drexciya,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Alphaville,
The Trojans,
Smog,
The Stooges,
JFA,
KRS-One,
Kenny Larkin,
Main Source,
The Cure, The Cure, The Cure, The Cure.
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.