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 Tajikistan and from Portland.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 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 Yusef Lateef to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All Carl Craig tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deakin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Arthur Verocai record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül,
Byron Stingily,
The Monochrome Set,
Babytalk,
John Lydon,
The Index,
The Evens,
The Slits,
Rites of Spring,
Outsiders,
Arthur Verocai,
Bobby Hutcherson,
John Coltrane,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Television Personalities,
Lungfish,
The Grass Roots,
The Fall,
Frankie Knuckles,
Andrew Hill,
Freddie Wadling,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Derrick Morgan,
the Germs,
The Doors,
the Human League,
Organ,
Absolute Body Control,
Wolf Eyes,
Bluetip,
Visage,
Marvin Gaye,
The Kinks,
R.M.O.,
Moby Grape,
The Happenings,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Essential Logic,
Porter Ricks,
Black Flag,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Blake Baxter,
Traffic Nightmare,
KRS-One,
DNA,
Quando Quango,
James White and The Blacks,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pere Ubu,
In Retrospect,
Lebanon Hanover,
Whodini,
Reuben Wilson,
The Martian,
The Electric Prunes,
The Count Five,
Anthony Braxton,
Basic Channel,
Vladislav Delay,
The Smoke,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
the Fania All-Stars,
Nas, Nas, Nas, Nas.
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.