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 Mongolia and from Tokyo.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Monolake to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boz Scaggs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
Jerry's Kids,
David McCallum,
Interpol,
The Beau Brummels,
The Happenings,
the Soft Cell,
Marshall Jefferson,
Soft Cell,
Swell Maps,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Index,
Eurythmics,
cv313,
Smog,
Spandau Ballet,
Sun City Girls,
Arab on Radar,
Hardrive,
Buzzcocks,
Man Parrish,
John Holt,
Procol Harum,
Erykah Badu,
The Dead C,
The Toasters,
Parry Music,
X-Ray Spex,
Davy DMX,
Gregory Isaacs,
Scion,
Lyres,
The Selecter,
Robert Hood,
Josef K,
La Düsseldorf,
L. Decosne,
Pole,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Busters,
Ice-T,
Neil Young,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Roxette,
Flipper,
D'Angelo,
Thee Headcoats,
The Kinks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Guru Guru,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
John Foxx,
Suburban Knight,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Robert Wyatt,
Jeff Mills,
Masters at Work,
Rapeman,
The Flesh Eaters,
Jandek,
Ken Boothe,
Minny Pops,
EPMD, EPMD, EPMD, EPMD.
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.