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 Botswana and from Toronto.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Holger Czukay 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 Happenings to the punk 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 Basic Channel. All the underground hits.
All Dead Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tomorrow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronnie Foster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skriet,
Bizarre Inc.,
Barry Ungar,
Whodini,
Judy Mowatt,
Moss Icon,
Zapp,
Moebius,
Pere Ubu,
Cameo,
The Shadows of Knight,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Index,
Swell Maps,
Sun City Girls,
Scott Walker,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Barrington Levy,
Country Teasers,
a-ha,
Blake Baxter,
Interpol,
Unrelated Segments,
Alice Coltrane,
Can,
Harmonia,
Public Enemy,
The Kinks,
Sarah Menescal,
Radiohead,
Yellowson,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Grass Roots,
DJ Style,
Sound Behaviour,
Tres Demented,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Unwound,
The Wake,
the Slits,
Junior Murvin,
Charles Mingus,
H. Thieme,
The Fire Engines,
Prince Buster,
Maleditus Sound,
New York Dolls,
Steve Hackett,
The Angels of Light,
Mr. Review,
The Moleskins,
Marcia Griffiths,
Darondo,
The Buckinghams,
Young Marble Giants,
Scion,
Fela Kuti,
Ludus,
Pagans,
Spandau Ballet,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Monks,
The Doors, The Doors, The Doors, The Doors.
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.