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 Dominican Republic and from Shanghai.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 chamberlin 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 The Fire Engines to the crunk 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 MDC. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Zapp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New York Dolls,
Minny Pops,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Five Americans,
Motorama,
Ossler,
T.S.O.L.,
The Martian,
Popol Vuh,
Lungfish,
Inner City,
Curtis Mayfield,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Selecter,
Archie Shepp,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Barracudas,
Sandy B,
Fela Kuti,
Delta 5,
Outsiders,
In Retrospect,
The Names,
Black Moon,
KRS-One,
Amon Düül II,
Swell Maps,
Bill Wells,
Khruangbin,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Monks,
Wire,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Camouflage,
Howard Jones,
Jeff Lynne,
Sarah Menescal,
Tubeway Army,
Juan Atkins,
The Electric Prunes,
Anakelly,
the Human League,
The Red Krayola,
Robert Hood,
The Grass Roots,
Symarip,
Peter and Kerry,
The Monochrome Set,
Lyres,
AZ,
Public Image Ltd.,
Soulsonic Force,
Fatback Band,
Terry Callier,
Amon Düül,
Parry Music,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sonny Sharrock,
Davy DMX,
This Heat,
Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne.
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.