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 Kiribati and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 sitar 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 Eric B and Rakim to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Sun Ra Arkestra. All the underground hits.
All Kevin Saunderson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sandy B record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang On A Can,
Ken Boothe,
Yusef Lateef,
Cheater Slicks,
Max Romeo,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Grey Daturas,
Talk Talk,
Lebanon Hanover,
Ultimate Spinach,
Flipper,
Scott Walker,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Theoretical Girls,
Pantytec,
Moby Grape,
K-Klass,
Suburban Knight,
James White and The Blacks,
Drexciya,
Rakim,
Prince Buster,
Con Funk Shun,
The Human League,
the Association,
Nirvana,
Minor Threat,
Eric B and Rakim,
Piero Umiliani,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Howard Jones,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Audionom,
The Gap Band,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Rites of Spring,
David Axelrod,
Lalo Schifrin,
Sight & Sound,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lungfish,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Star Department,
the Sonics,
Gang Starr,
DJ Sneak,
Brass Construction,
Barbara Tucker,
A Certain Ratio,
The Trojans,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Soulsonic Force,
Robert Hood,
Dead Boys,
Severed Heads,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pulsallama,
Marcia Griffiths,
Jacques Brel,
Simply Red, Simply Red, Simply Red, Simply Red.
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.