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 Finland and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 theremin 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 Donny Hathaway to the crunk 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk. All the underground hits.
All Joe Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantytec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Chrome,
The Last Poets,
The Skatalites,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Monochrome Set,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Deakin,
Ice-T,
Leonard Cohen,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sugar Minott,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Grass Roots,
The Evens,
Youth Brigade,
The Count Five,
John Coltrane,
Little Man,
Juan Atkins,
Masters at Work,
The United States of America,
OOIOO,
The Mummies,
Eric Dolphy,
The Young Rascals,
Glambeats Corp.,
Tommy Roe,
Agitation Free,
Tomorrow,
The Barracudas,
Monks,
Moby Grape,
Accadde A,
Dawn Penn,
Stetsasonic,
the Swans,
Subhumans,
Funky Four + One,
Boogie Down Productions,
H. Thieme,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
ABBA,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Jeru the Damaja,
Nils Olav,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
PIL,
The Victims,
Model 500,
Au Pairs,
Minny Pops,
Ornette Coleman,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Slave,
Ohio Players,
The Standells,
The Tremeloes,
Fatback Band,
Bob Dylan,
The Human League, The Human League, The Human League, The Human League.
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.