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 Turkmenistan and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Lizzy Mercier Descloux to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fall. All the underground hits.
All Second Layer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Lydon 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lebanon Hanover,
Joe Finger,
Marc Almond,
The Sound,
Flash Fearless,
Susan Cadogan,
Shuggie Otis,
Juan Atkins,
Matthew Halsall,
Monolake,
The Star Department,
Outsiders,
Sonny Sharrock,
Slave,
Fatback Band,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
PIL,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Rapeman,
Wally Richardson,
ABC,
Mo-Dettes,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Marcia Griffiths,
Excepter,
Gang Gang Dance,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Index,
Lungfish,
Bad Manners,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Au Pairs,
Y Pants,
Sonic Youth,
Albert Ayler,
Sällskapet,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Erasure,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Alphaville,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Derrick Morgan,
The Music Machine,
Archie Shepp,
The Sonics,
Eric Dolphy,
Jeff Mills,
Nas,
the Bar-Kays,
The Moleskins,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Eric B and Rakim,
Newcleus,
Frankie Knuckles,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Dave Clark Five,
Malaria!,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.