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 Mumbai.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Pagans to the techno 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 Yazoo. All the underground hits.
All Shuggie Otis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lower 48 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cramps,
Aswad,
Hasil Adkins,
Monolake,
Brothers Johnson,
Radio Birdman,
Yellowson,
DJ Style,
The Cowsills,
Minutemen,
Index,
Bobby Womack,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Real Kids,
The Stooges,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Rites of Spring,
Cluster,
Wire,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Absolute Body Control,
Toni Rubio,
The Invisible,
The Detroit Cobras,
MDC,
Lebanon Hanover,
Joe Smooth,
Magma,
Ludus,
Fat Boys,
Barry Ungar,
The Misunderstood,
Piero Umiliani,
the Bar-Kays,
Flash Fearless,
Yusef Lateef,
Niagra,
John Foxx,
Gabor Szabo,
Oneida,
Hashim,
Sam Rivers,
Cecil Taylor,
the Human League,
Oblivians,
Bush Tetras,
Whodini,
Kurtis Blow,
Intrusion,
Babytalk,
Big Daddy Kane,
Junior Murvin,
Alphaville,
Cymande,
Surgeon,
Young Marble Giants,
Duran Duran,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Cure,
Robert Görl,
Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore, Pussy Galore.
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.