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 Paraguay and from Calgary.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Unrelated Segments to the funk 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 Hot Snakes. All the underground hits.
All Niagra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans 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 an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Crooked Eye record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marcia Griffiths,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bootsy Collins,
Magma,
Mark Hollis,
The Techniques,
The Offenders,
Sam Rivers,
Ronnie Foster,
Derrick Morgan,
Nico,
48th St. Collective,
Sandy B,
Severed Heads,
Duran Duran,
Warsaw,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sun Ra,
Crash Course in Science,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Neon Judgement,
Los Fastidios,
Das Ding,
Barbara Tucker,
Mantronix,
The Sonics,
The Dave Clark Five,
JFA,
ABBA,
Rekid,
China Crisis,
Minny Pops,
Lalann,
Pussy Galore,
The Index,
Stetsasonic,
Youth Brigade,
a-ha,
Ronan,
Mission of Burma,
Stockholm Monsters,
Shoche,
Drive Like Jehu,
Marshall Jefferson,
X-Ray Spex,
Joyce Sims,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Camouflage,
Tom Boy,
David Bowie,
Delta 5,
The Barracudas,
Fatback Band,
U.S. Maple,
Robert Wyatt,
Idris Muhammad,
Malaria!,
Radiopuhelimet,
John Holt,
Pet Shop Boys,
Throbbing Gristle,
A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio.
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.