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 Micronesia and from Madrid.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Bobby Byrd to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 MC5. All the underground hits.
All Camouflage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlbäck record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Enemy,
Tommy Roe,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Sex Pistols,
Blossom Toes,
Roger Hodgson,
The Human League,
Visage,
the Sonics,
Marine Girls,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Sound,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bush Tetras,
MC5,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Funky Four + One,
Amon Düül II,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Moss Icon,
Adolescents,
Fad Gadget,
Rites of Spring,
Sarah Menescal,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Neu!,
Hot Snakes,
World's Most,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Newcleus,
Dennis Brown,
The Monks,
Wolf Eyes,
The Litter,
Blake Baxter,
Erasure,
the Association,
Kerri Chandler,
The Gap Band,
Marmalade,
Isaac Hayes,
Arthur Verocai,
The Angels of Light,
Pharoah Sanders,
Boredoms,
Man Parrish,
Tropical Tobacco,
Das Ding,
Cameo,
Don Cherry,
Matthew Bourne,
Girls At Our Best!,
Trumans Water,
Maleditus Sound,
New Age Steppers,
Gang Starr,
The Blues Magoos,
The Selecter,
Au Pairs,
The Slackers,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Smog, Smog, Smog, Smog.
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.