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 Ireland and from Shanghai.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and New York.
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 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Excepter to the jazz 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 Unwound. All the underground hits.
All Animal Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Funky Four + One record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Niagra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sam Rivers,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Vainqueur,
Idris Muhammad,
Roxette,
Visage,
Animal Collective,
Television,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Mantronix,
Arab on Radar,
Underground Resistance,
Bob Dylan,
Scientists,
Scott Walker,
Yaz,
Desert Stars,
The Golliwogs,
Pantaleimon,
Eddi Front,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Pagans,
The Beau Brummels,
Oneida,
the Bar-Kays,
World's Most,
Janne Schatter,
Terry Callier,
8 Eyed Spy,
Ten City,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Reagan Youth,
T. Rex,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jacob Miller,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nas,
China Crisis,
OOIOO,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Blues Magoos,
Severed Heads,
Basic Channel,
Gichy Dan,
Fad Gadget,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Spandau Ballet,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Sound,
John Holt,
T.S.O.L.,
Shoche,
Stereo Dub,
Ultravox,
Big Daddy Kane,
Faraquet,
10cc,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Flash Fearless,
The Durutti Column,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.