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 Ecuador and from Shanghai.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Beijing.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Q and Not U to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Cecil Taylor. All the underground hits.
All Gary Puckett & The Union Gap tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Susan Cadogan 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Derrick May,
The Velvet Underground,
Reuben Wilson,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Durutti Column,
Y Pants,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Golliwogs,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Avey Tare,
The Five Americans,
Joy Division,
Lakeside,
The Wake,
the Sonics,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Detroit Cobras,
Mars,
Dorothy Ashby,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Seeds,
Black Sheep,
Schoolly D,
Public Enemy,
Zero Boys,
Guru Guru,
Tubeway Army,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Judy Mowatt,
Marmalade,
Dead Boys,
Talk Talk,
The Sound,
Yazoo,
The Angels of Light,
The Birthday Party,
Livin' Joy,
Skaos,
Audionom,
Crime,
Rapeman,
Johnny Osbourne,
Amon Düül II,
Nils Olav,
Average White Band,
X-101,
Danielle Patucci,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
8 Eyed Spy,
the Association,
Robert Görl,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Oblivians,
Kas Product,
Yellowson,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Index,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Deadbeat,
Porter Ricks,
Cabaret Voltaire,
K-Klass,
Sarah Menescal,
DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak.
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.