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 Saudi Arabia and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 marimba 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 Sunsets and Hearts to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Monks. All the underground hits.
All Al Stewart tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Reagan Youth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Goldenarms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Gories,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Loose Ends,
The Slits,
Archie Shepp,
Wally Richardson,
Mantronix,
Arcadia,
The Fortunes,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Blackbyrds,
Bobby Womack,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sällskapet,
Inner City,
Second Layer,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Flash Fearless,
the Normal,
Flipper,
Skriet,
Nik Kershaw,
Tommy Roe,
The Stooges,
Eli Mardock,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Altered Images,
Faust,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Invisible,
Nation of Ulysses,
Alphaville,
Talk Talk,
Davy DMX,
Mr. Review,
Bang On A Can,
Underground Resistance,
48th St. Collective,
Aswad,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
the Soft Cell,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
MDC,
Ponytail,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
H. Thieme,
X-Ray Spex,
Echospace,
Yellowson,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
LL Cool J,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Terry Callier,
David Axelrod,
Motorama,
Lungfish,
Althea and Donna,
Ash Ra Tempel,
John Holt,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.