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 Djibouti and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Albert Ayler to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Misunderstood. All the underground hits.
All The Skatalites tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Skaos record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
ABBA,
Quando Quango,
Animal Collective,
Cameo,
Lou Reed,
Charles Mingus,
Ituana,
Lalann,
The Slits,
Pole,
L. Decosne,
Talk Talk,
Colin Newman,
Ornette Coleman,
Desert Stars,
David Bowie,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Khruangbin,
Brothers Johnson,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Moebius,
The Skatalites,
Pantytec,
Byron Stingily,
The Cowsills,
R.M.O.,
David Axelrod,
The Pop Group,
Thompson Twins,
David McCallum,
Bill Near,
The Human League,
EPMD,
Lindisfarne,
Bush Tetras,
Sixth Finger,
Darondo,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Absolute Body Control,
Rekid,
Slick Rick,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Detroit Cobras,
Severed Heads,
Bobby Byrd,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Barracudas,
Chrome,
Motorama,
The Fortunes,
the Swans,
Erasure,
Aaron Thompson,
Public Enemy,
Newcleus,
Josef K,
Cluster, Cluster, Cluster, Cluster.
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.