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 Liberia and from Calgary.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 clarinet 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 Hoover to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sisters of Mercy. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young & Crazy Horse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Darondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Sheep,
Boogie Down Productions,
Magazine,
Mission of Burma,
Archie Shepp,
Unwound,
Essential Logic,
Rapeman,
Ronnie Foster,
The American Breed,
La Düsseldorf,
Lakeside,
Byron Stingily,
Clear Light,
DJ Sneak,
The Buckinghams,
Traffic Nightmare,
Brick,
The Gories,
The Red Krayola,
Rotary Connection,
Section 25,
Zapp,
The Alarm Clocks,
Soul Sonic Force,
Thee Headcoats,
Surgeon,
The Residents,
Swans,
Depeche Mode,
Sällskapet,
Absolute Body Control,
Banda Bassotti,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Agitation Free,
Carl Craig,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Mojo Men,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
X-Ray Spex,
E-Dancer,
B.T. Express,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Thompson Twins,
Rites of Spring,
Moby Grape,
Michelle Simonal,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Little Man,
Joey Negro,
Basic Channel,
Gerry Rafferty,
Eden Ahbez,
Average White Band,
Faraquet,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Bobby Sherman,
Johnny Clarke,
The Standells,
the Swans,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ossler,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.