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 Burundi and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 Columbus and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 organ 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 Make Up to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Godley & Creme. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unwound 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultravox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
Scrapy,
Harmonia,
Television Personalities,
Rakim,
The New Christs,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Tomorrow,
One Last Wish,
Robert Wyatt,
Pulsallama,
Funky Four + One,
EPMD,
Drexciya,
Lyres,
The Names,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Duran Duran,
The Fall,
Johnny Clarke,
Lalann,
DJ Sneak,
Joy Division,
Rapeman,
Liliput,
Pussy Galore,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Dirtbombs,
ABBA,
Yellowson,
CMW,
Make Up,
Kerri Chandler,
Bill Wells,
Deadbeat,
The Durutti Column,
Anthony Braxton,
Steve Hackett,
The Selecter,
the Bar-Kays,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Smoke,
Q and Not U,
Jerry's Kids,
Radiopuhelimet,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Hardrive,
Iggy Pop,
Ultra Naté,
The Neon Judgement,
Talk Talk,
The Modern Lovers,
Ken Boothe,
U.S. Maple,
Kenny Larkin,
Average White Band,
Eve St. Jones,
The Vogues,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Birthday Party,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.