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 Belarus and from Woodstock.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Spokane.
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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Soft Machine to the disco 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 Joe Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Junior Murvin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Monochrome Set 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Bowie,
Pet Shop Boys,
Symarip,
Pole,
Fluxion,
Steve Hackett,
The Real Kids,
The Invisible,
K-Klass,
X-101,
E-Dancer,
One Last Wish,
The Litter,
Camberwell Now,
Terry Callier,
The Human League,
Spandau Ballet,
Guru Guru,
Smog,
Althea and Donna,
Jandek,
Crispian St. Peters,
Wings,
Tropical Tobacco,
Trumans Water,
Minor Threat,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Matthew Bourne,
The Five Americans,
Joe Smooth,
The Misunderstood,
Barry Ungar,
Amon Düül,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Fortunes,
Albert Ayler,
Tres Demented,
Simply Red,
Ultravox,
Carl Craig,
John Coltrane,
Davy DMX,
Susan Cadogan,
Robert Görl,
Kenny Larkin,
Siglo XX,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Wire,
The Trojans,
Derrick May,
Aaron Thompson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Names,
Girls At Our Best!,
Excepter,
Terrestrial Tones,
Y Pants,
Rites of Spring,
Nation of Ulysses,
Michelle Simonal,
Nils Olav,
Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens.
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.