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 Liberia and from Houston.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
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 Dave Gahan to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Janne Schatter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Metal Thangz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joe Smooth,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Bobby Sherman,
Electric Prunes,
Liliput,
Jacob Miller,
Swell Maps,
Ornette Coleman,
The Gap Band,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Isaac Hayes,
Scientists,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Slackers,
Banda Bassotti,
Monks,
the Swans,
Idris Muhammad,
Pantytec,
Aaron Thompson,
The Walker Brothers,
Pole,
Bronski Beat,
Soul Sonic Force,
Jerry's Kids,
The New Christs,
Mo-Dettes,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Faraquet,
Camouflage,
Pierre Henry,
Bobby Byrd,
John Lydon,
EPMD,
The Angels of Light,
D'Angelo,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Zapp,
the Slits,
X-102,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Eddi Front,
The Gories,
Blossom Toes,
Yellowson,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Interpol,
The Star Department,
Quantec,
Smog,
Robert Wyatt,
The Grass Roots,
Procol Harum,
Tears for Fears,
Unrelated Segments,
Y Pants,
Faust,
Peter & Gordon,
The Invisible,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Skatalites,
Stereo Dub,
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.