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 Chile and from Halifax.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Bobbi Humphrey to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Amon Düül II. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smoke record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Q65 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Selecter,
Crispy Ambulance,
Hardrive,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Cramps,
Stockholm Monsters,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Aswad,
Max Romeo,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Spoonie Gee,
Big Daddy Kane,
Derrick Morgan,
Gong,
the Swans,
The Electric Prunes,
48th St. Collective,
Tommy Roe,
Drexciya,
Eve St. Jones,
Yaz,
Matthew Bourne,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bill Near,
FM Einheit,
This Heat,
The Monks,
Dave Gahan,
Quando Quango,
Bronski Beat,
Smog,
10cc,
The Divine Comedy,
Electric Prunes,
Radio Birdman,
Black Pus,
The Raincoats,
Ultimate Spinach,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Star Department,
Wolf Eyes,
The Real Kids,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Swell Maps,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Absolute Body Control,
Pole,
These Immortal Souls,
Dead Boys,
June of 44,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Eurythmics,
Model 500,
Leonard Cohen,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.