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 Papua New Guinea and from Tehran.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Pagans to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All Sällskapet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a K-Klass record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bad Manners,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
T.S.O.L.,
Fad Gadget,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Grass Roots,
The Velvet Underground,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Trojans,
The Modern Lovers,
Unwound,
The Fall,
The Names,
Excepter,
Buzzcocks,
The Busters,
Derrick Morgan,
Soulsonic Force,
Ultra Naté,
DNA,
Adolescents,
the Slits,
Von Mondo,
This Heat,
Cymande,
The Gap Band,
Das Ding,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Index,
Harmonia,
Warren Ellis,
Silicon Teens,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Cowsills,
Gong,
Arthur Verocai,
UT,
Gang Starr,
Theoretical Girls,
The Standells,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Bobby Sherman,
The Real Kids,
Cluster,
Reagan Youth,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Judy Mowatt,
Eden Ahbez,
Amazonics,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Dennis Brown,
Lucky Dragons,
Barclay James Harvest,
Metal Thangz,
The Offenders,
Funky Four + One,
Jawbox,
Stockholm Monsters,
Kevin Saunderson,
Brand Nubian,
The Gun Club,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.