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 Qatar and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Smiths to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Theoretical Girls. All the underground hits.
All Anthony Braxton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bootsy Collins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blancmange record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mad Mike,
Idris Muhammad,
Kerri Chandler,
Sam Rivers,
Cabaret Voltaire,
A Certain Ratio,
Black Moon,
Bang On A Can,
DJ Style,
The Gun Club,
Grandmaster Flash,
Man Eating Sloth,
Babytalk,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Misunderstood,
Country Teasers,
Sex Pistols,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Smog,
Tim Buckley,
Bobby Womack,
Arab on Radar,
Aural Exciters,
Lower 48,
Vladislav Delay,
Shoche,
Camberwell Now,
Skriet,
The Grass Roots,
Mark Hollis,
The Flesh Eaters,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Mummies,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Amon Düül,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Cosmic Jokers,
DJ Sneak,
The Seeds,
UT,
Scion,
Marcia Griffiths,
Alton Ellis,
Minnie Riperton,
Suburban Knight,
Fluxion,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Blackbyrds,
Donny Hathaway,
48th St. Collective,
Erasure,
Dual Sessions,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Walker Brothers,
The Saints,
Derrick May,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Con Funk Shun,
Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade.
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.