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 Tuvalu and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Crash Course in Science to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Au Pairs. All the underground hits.
All Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barry Ungar 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
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 Aural Exciters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Clear Light,
Country Teasers,
Simply Red,
Howard Jones,
Grauzone,
Anthony Braxton,
Marine Girls,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Audionom,
Cameo,
The Durutti Column,
Essential Logic,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sarah Menescal,
Mantronix,
the Slits,
Brick,
Sun Ra,
Terrestrial Tones,
Rakim,
Scott Walker,
the Fania All-Stars,
Supertramp,
Mandrill,
Neu!,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Chrome,
The Grass Roots,
Fad Gadget,
The Leaves,
Ten City,
Roy Ayers,
Sex Pistols,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Last Poets,
Maurizio,
Bootsy Collins,
Letta Mbulu,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Susan Cadogan,
Harpers Bizarre,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
World's Most,
Robert Wyatt,
Todd Rundgren,
Marmalade,
Organ,
The Knickerbockers,
The Kinks,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Fuzztones,
Television Personalities,
Faraquet,
Dennis Brown,
Johnny Clarke,
David Axelrod,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Soul II Soul,
The Names,
Nils Olav,
Soulsonic Force,
DJ Style,
The Invisible,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.