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 New Zealand and from Paris.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Moby Grape to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Susan Cadogan. All the underground hits.
All Jacob Miller tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Patti Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glenn Branca record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Reuben Wilson,
The Leaves,
DNA,
Mad Mike,
The Last Poets,
Grandmaster Flash,
Gong,
Q65,
The Knickerbockers,
The Pop Group,
The Move,
Cecil Taylor,
The Fire Engines,
Moss Icon,
Curtis Mayfield,
Surgeon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Remains,
Flamin' Groovies,
Banda Bassotti,
Kerri Chandler,
Eurythmics,
Sight & Sound,
the Human League,
Franke,
Zapp,
Au Pairs,
Organ,
the Germs,
Sonic Youth,
The American Breed,
Quando Quango,
The Raincoats,
Scott Walker,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Barry Ungar,
Alphaville,
Delon & Dalcan,
Das Ding,
Arcadia,
Shoche,
Yaz,
Connie Case,
Kurtis Blow,
The Index,
Eden Ahbez,
Severed Heads,
Dave Gahan,
F. McDonald,
Man Parrish,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Essential Logic,
The Birthday Party,
Tim Buckley,
John Foxx,
Todd Terry,
Magazine,
X-102,
OOIOO,
The Angels of Light,
Shuggie Otis,
Radio Birdman,
This Heat,
the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell.
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.