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 Ethiopia and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 R.M.O. to the grime 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 Kerrie Biddell. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlbäck tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Vogues record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roger Hodgson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
The Detroit Cobras,
The J.B.'s,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Dead Boys,
CMW,
Eric Copeland,
Skarface,
Black Flag,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
the Soft Cell,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Toasters,
cv313,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
David Axelrod,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Scott Walker,
kango's stein massive,
Arcadia,
The Move,
Pole,
Joe Finger,
The Fuzztones,
Drive Like Jehu,
EPMD,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
T.S.O.L.,
Marine Girls,
Brothers Johnson,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The New Christs,
The Star Department,
Slave,
The Five Americans,
Fela Kuti,
The Victims,
Neu!,
Maleditus Sound,
48th St. Collective,
Stereo Dub,
The Moleskins,
Negative Approach,
Mission of Burma,
Fat Boys,
The Martian,
Aural Exciters,
The Monks,
Shuggie Otis,
Bush Tetras,
Glenn Branca,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Agitation Free,
Dorothy Ashby,
D'Angelo,
The Last Poets,
Cal Tjader,
The Vogues,
Sugar Minott,
Robert Görl,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.