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 Paraguay and from Portland.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 rhodes 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 The Men They Couldn't Hang to the rock kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 John Lydon. All the underground hits.
All Davy DMX tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T. Rex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Trojans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
the Normal,
Nirvana,
Nik Kershaw,
Man Eating Sloth,
Icehouse,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Outsiders,
the Sonics,
Cymande,
Maurizio,
The Neon Judgement,
Marvin Gaye,
The Velvet Underground,
Blake Baxter,
Ohio Players,
Agitation Free,
Kurtis Blow,
The Martian,
Camouflage,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Rekid,
Nas,
Roger Hodgson,
Organ,
Kaleidoscope,
EPMD,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Harry Pussy,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Dorothy Ashby,
Flipper,
Robert Hood,
Moebius,
Tim Buckley,
Young Marble Giants,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Bobby Byrd,
Gregory Isaacs,
Motorama,
The Residents,
Graham Central Station,
Tomorrow,
Derrick May,
Jesper Dahlback,
Iggy Pop,
Joyce Sims,
Todd Rundgren,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Anthony Braxton,
Zapp,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Newcleus,
Connie Case,
Absolute Body Control,
Mars,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Skriet,
Suicide,
Avey Tare,
Bootsy Collins,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.