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 Benin and from Hong Kong.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Chrome to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Selecter. All the underground hits.
All Red Lorry Yellow Lorry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Victims 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David McCallum,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Dead Boys,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Patti Smith,
Half Japanese,
Joe Smooth,
The Smiths,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Cure,
Lebanon Hanover,
Marvin Gaye,
Malaria!,
The Fugs,
The Sound,
Freddie Wadling,
Saccharine Trust,
Judy Mowatt,
Carl Craig,
The Young Rascals,
Crispian St. Peters,
Jeff Mills,
KRS-One,
Tubeway Army,
Prince Buster,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Yusef Lateef,
Josef K,
Lakeside,
Unwound,
Dennis Brown,
Gang Starr,
Derrick Morgan,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Pantaleimon,
Chrome,
Intrusion,
Rosa Yemen,
The Pop Group,
Davy DMX,
Michelle Simonal,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Unrelated Segments,
Jandek,
Roxy Music,
Don Cherry,
Sugar Minott,
Faust,
cv313,
Fugazi,
The Modern Lovers,
F. McDonald,
R.M.O.,
Thee Headcoats,
Motorama,
FM Einheit,
Junior Murvin,
Lou Reed,
the Swans,
Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk.
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.