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 Kuwait and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and New York.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Pussy Galore to the crunk 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 Ultramagnetic MC's. All the underground hits.
All Carl Craig tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Near record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bush Tetras,
Chris & Cosey,
The Star Department,
Ken Boothe,
Desert Stars,
Brand Nubian,
Black Pus,
Eddi Front,
Isaac Hayes,
The Selecter,
The Slackers,
Ultra Naté,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Barry Ungar,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Index,
Stetsasonic,
Mo-Dettes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Moby Grape,
La Düsseldorf,
Neil Young,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Angels of Light,
Sister Nancy,
Sarah Menescal,
Lungfish,
Masters at Work,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rakim,
Hoover,
Aural Exciters,
Funkadelic,
The Gories,
Johnny Clarke,
Slave,
UT,
Man Eating Sloth,
Technova,
R.M.O.,
Pussy Galore,
Rekid,
John Lydon,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Interpol,
ABC,
Livin' Joy,
Robert Görl,
Au Pairs,
Basic Channel,
Eve St. Jones,
The Busters,
Roxette,
Newcleus,
The Count Five,
Mission of Burma,
Sixth Finger,
Ralphi Rosario,
Josef K,
Ultimate Spinach,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.