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 South Sudan and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Sound to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Terry Callier. All the underground hits.
All Selector Dub Narcotic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nils Olav record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 a theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Residents record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Erykah Badu,
Mad Mike,
Duran Duran,
Anthony Braxton,
Panda Bear,
Alton Ellis,
The Count Five,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Barbara Tucker,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Index,
Massinfluence,
Outsiders,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Wally Richardson,
Scientists,
Cameo,
Faraquet,
Lower 48,
The Associates,
The New Christs,
the Soft Cell,
Roxy Music,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Faust,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
DJ Sneak,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Niagra,
Gil Scott Heron,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Agitation Free,
Jacob Miller,
Lightning Bolt,
Black Moon,
Piero Umiliani,
The Fire Engines,
Johnny Clarke,
The Tremeloes,
Matthew Bourne,
The Offenders,
The Leaves,
Drive Like Jehu,
Todd Terry,
Scott Walker,
Warsaw,
Skriet,
Arab on Radar,
Johnny Osbourne,
Underground Resistance,
FM Einheit,
Radiopuhelimet,
Throbbing Gristle,
Danielle Patucci,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sight & Sound,
Junior Murvin,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.