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 Swaziland and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 United States of America. All the underground hits.
All Wolf Eyes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cal Tjader 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Absolute Body Control record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
Bobby Byrd,
Y Pants,
These Immortal Souls,
Stiv Bators,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Rapeman,
Fatback Band,
The Litter,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Bad Manners,
Maurizio,
Television Personalities,
Deepchord,
Derrick May,
Newcleus,
Darondo,
Prince Buster,
Heaven 17,
Hardrive,
Nirvana,
Colin Newman,
The Monochrome Set,
The Searchers,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Ossler,
Alison Limerick,
The Divine Comedy,
H. Thieme,
Marmalade,
Idris Muhammad,
Dennis Brown,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Eric B and Rakim,
Pagans,
Robert Wyatt,
Alton Ellis,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Graham Central Station,
Sly & The Family Stone,
the Normal,
Boogie Down Productions,
Barclay James Harvest,
John Lydon,
Rosa Yemen,
Malaria!,
Flipper,
Dawn Penn,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Radiopuhelimet,
New Order,
Danielle Patucci,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Althea and Donna,
Tom Boy,
Supertramp,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Accadde A,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.