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 Swaziland and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 arpeggiator 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 Underground Resistance to the grunge 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 Drive Like Jehu. All the underground hits.
All Easy Going tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Martian record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a U.S. Maple record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Doobie Brothers,
Anthony Braxton,
The Slits,
The New Christs,
cv313,
Deadbeat,
Ituana,
Wire,
Junior Murvin,
Johnny Osbourne,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lee Hazlewood,
Little Man,
Scrapy,
Surgeon,
Delon & Dalcan,
Traffic Nightmare,
Wolf Eyes,
Kool Moe Dee,
Absolute Body Control,
Wasted Youth,
UT,
the Soft Cell,
Jandek,
X-102,
Black Bananas,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Fire Engines,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Monks,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Boredoms,
Excepter,
Oneida,
the Normal,
Cal Tjader,
T. Rex,
Patti Smith,
Ten City,
John Foxx,
James Chance & The Contortions,
James White and The Blacks,
Erykah Badu,
Lower 48,
The Modern Lovers,
Oblivians,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Mantronix,
Second Layer,
The Divine Comedy,
Ronan,
Blossom Toes,
Joe Smooth,
The Move,
Youth Brigade,
The Count Five,
Gil Scott Heron,
Make Up,
Amon Düül,
Don Cherry,
The Monochrome Set,
The Star Department,
Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks, Cheater Slicks.
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.