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 Togo and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 organ 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 Pantytec to the punk 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 Minutemen. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cabaret Voltaire record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel 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?
Blancmange,
Smog,
Blossom Toes,
Joensuu 1685,
The Saints,
Circle Jerks,
Glambeats Corp.,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Curtis Mayfield,
Parry Music,
Organ,
Monolake,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Young Marble Giants,
The Raincoats,
Echospace,
the Germs,
Guru Guru,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Negative Approach,
Johnny Clarke,
The Shadows of Knight,
Zapp,
Dark Day,
Derrick Morgan,
Delon & Dalcan,
Maleditus Sound,
The Grass Roots,
Trumans Water,
James White and The Blacks,
Ohio Players,
The Misunderstood,
The Gun Club,
Mo-Dettes,
The Walker Brothers,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Yaz,
Suicide,
Niagra,
Masters at Work,
Brand Nubian,
Altered Images,
Hasil Adkins,
F. McDonald,
The Cowsills,
The Red Krayola,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Monks,
Slave,
The Kinks,
Tres Demented,
The Smoke,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Moss Icon,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Rosa Yemen,
Erykah Badu,
Jandek,
Bluetip,
Johnny Osbourne,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.