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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Bremen.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Can to the grime 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 Boz Scaggs. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacques Brel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Faust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Frankie Knuckles,
Robert Hood,
Schoolly D,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Babytalk,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Gun Club,
Iggy Pop,
Brick,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Monks,
Stetsasonic,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Quando Quango,
Harmonia,
Howard Jones,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Popol Vuh,
Gil Scott Heron,
Nation of Ulysses,
Nas,
Gichy Dan,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ultimate Spinach,
Fluxion,
Bobby Sherman,
Bobby Byrd,
The Barracudas,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Pantytec,
Barbara Tucker,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
X-101,
Sam Rivers,
Kayak,
The Wake,
Judy Mowatt,
Porter Ricks,
The Fortunes,
These Immortal Souls,
PIL,
The Detroit Cobras,
Godley & Creme,
Symarip,
Icehouse,
Robert Görl,
The Victims,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Kurtis Blow,
Juan Atkins,
Gang Green,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Donny Hathaway,
Unwound,
Robert Wyatt,
Josef K,
Matthew Halsall,
the Swans,
Au Pairs,
Khruangbin,
Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell.
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.