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 Botswana and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Fatback Band to the funk 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 Black Flag. All the underground hits.
All Dead Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerri Chandler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bauhaus,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Niagra,
Altered Images,
Gong,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Adolescents,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Excepter,
Robert Hood,
China Crisis,
Brick,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Matthew Bourne,
The Wake,
Electric Prunes,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Panda Bear,
Donny Hathaway,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ludus,
JFA,
X-Ray Spex,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Porter Ricks,
Whodini,
The Tremeloes,
Aloha Tigers,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
UT,
Iggy Pop,
Can,
Stetsasonic,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Jeru the Damaja,
Smog,
Joe Smooth,
Susan Cadogan,
Technova,
U.S. Maple,
Joey Negro,
Alton Ellis,
Harmonia,
Maleditus Sound,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Eric Dolphy,
Trumans Water,
K-Klass,
Public Enemy,
Donald Byrd,
Deakin,
Eve St. Jones,
Swell Maps,
Isaac Hayes,
Jerry's Kids,
Piero Umiliani,
These Immortal Souls,
Radiopuhelimet,
Black Flag,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh.
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.