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 Nigeria and from Manila.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Tehran.
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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba 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 Negative Approach to the rock 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 Sound Behaviour. All the underground hits.
All Rotary Connection tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roxy Music record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Normal,
Todd Rundgren,
Tubeway Army,
The Walker Brothers,
Soft Machine,
Sarah Menescal,
The Beau Brummels,
Fear,
Drexciya,
The Evens,
Josef K,
Unwound,
Kenny Larkin,
Quando Quango,
Heaven 17,
The Last Poets,
Radiohead,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Banda Bassotti,
E-Dancer,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Skriet,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Invisible,
Wire,
Symarip,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Swans,
Boredoms,
DJ Style,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Pantytec,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Red Krayola,
Nico,
Eli Mardock,
Angry Samoans,
The Grass Roots,
Stetsasonic,
John Cale,
Graham Central Station,
The Divine Comedy,
Harpers Bizarre,
Alton Ellis,
The Litter,
Mantronix,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Trumans Water,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Loose Ends,
T.S.O.L.,
EPMD,
Alice Coltrane,
Pantaleimon,
Gang of Four,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Joy Division,
Amazonics,
JFA,
Nils Olav,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.