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 Kenya and from Beijing.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Subhumans to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Cabaret Voltaire. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pole 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jesper Dahlback record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hot Snakes,
The Count Five,
Bobby Byrd,
Vainqueur,
Hardrive,
Unwound,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Charles Mingus,
Guru Guru,
Tres Demented,
Quadrant,
The Vogues,
Kaleidoscope,
Ituana,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Five Americans,
Dual Sessions,
the Swans,
Ronan,
Stetsasonic,
Second Layer,
L. Decosne,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Skaos,
Loose Ends,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Doors,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Piero Umiliani,
Urselle,
Blake Baxter,
Reuben Wilson,
Bronski Beat,
Todd Terry,
Rhythm & Sound,
Alton Ellis,
Japan,
Pole,
Donald Byrd,
Whodini,
Erasure,
Sugar Minott,
The Sound,
Pierre Henry,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Technova,
Scrapy,
Agent Orange,
The Victims,
Index,
Nick Fraelich,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Sisters of Mercy,
A Certain Ratio,
The Busters,
Frankie Knuckles,
Lalo Schifrin,
Bob Dylan,
Television Personalities,
Television,
Radiohead,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Buzzcocks,
Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff.
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.