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 Congo and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the marimba 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Patti Smith. All the underground hits.
All The Human League tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soulsonic Force 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin 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 arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ronnie Foster,
Livin' Joy,
Leonard Cohen,
La Düsseldorf,
T.S.O.L.,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Brick,
The American Breed,
Simply Red,
The Remains,
The Stooges,
Arcadia,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Sonics,
Lee Hazlewood,
Altered Images,
Lungfish,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Dennis Brown,
New York Dolls,
Sight & Sound,
Wolf Eyes,
Joey Negro,
Avey Tare,
The Durutti Column,
Section 25,
Warren Ellis,
Big Daddy Kane,
Eric B and Rakim,
Bill Near,
Ralphi Rosario,
Das Ding,
Radiohead,
Cybotron,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Dead C,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
the Sonics,
James White and The Blacks,
World's Most,
Jacques Brel,
Anthony Braxton,
Brothers Johnson,
The Beau Brummels,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Happenings,
Suicide,
48th St. Collective,
Faust,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Techniques,
10cc,
Harmonia,
Rufus Thomas,
Iggy Pop,
Intrusion,
Procol Harum,
The Kinks,
Donald Byrd,
Cymande,
Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free.
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.