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 Belize and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the organ 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 Glambeats Corp. to the crunk 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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Funkadelic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Public Enemy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeru the Damaja,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Scratch Acid,
The Five Americans,
48th St. Collective,
DJ Style,
FM Einheit,
Massinfluence,
Tres Demented,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Archie Shepp,
Fluxion,
Severed Heads,
Lyres,
Simply Red,
The Modern Lovers,
Al Stewart,
Lalann,
Slick Rick,
Judy Mowatt,
Anakelly,
Altered Images,
Vladislav Delay,
R.M.O.,
Oneida,
Dawn Penn,
Nick Fraelich,
Jacob Miller,
Black Bananas,
Scott Walker,
The Moleskins,
Camberwell Now,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Banda Bassotti,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Brass Construction,
Country Teasers,
Second Layer,
Anthony Braxton,
Bobby Byrd,
Kas Product,
Idris Muhammad,
The Black Dice,
Television,
Bobby Sherman,
X-102,
Quantec,
Bronski Beat,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
John Lydon,
The Fugs,
Gong,
Deakin,
The Beau Brummels,
Bootsy Collins,
Swell Maps,
Dave Gahan,
Larry & the Blue Notes, Larry & the Blue Notes, Larry & the Blue Notes, Larry & the Blue Notes.
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.