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 Pakistan and from Madrid.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Glasgow.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Section 25 to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Sexual Harrassment. All the underground hits.
All Delta 5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gories record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tom Boy,
Harmonia,
The Count Five,
Quantec,
Rakim,
Jesper Dahlback,
Roger Hodgson,
The Last Poets,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
R.M.O.,
Camberwell Now,
Gabor Szabo,
Scientists,
Eddi Front,
Television,
FM Einheit,
Jacob Miller,
New York Dolls,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Standells,
Colin Newman,
Lebanon Hanover,
Mission of Burma,
Unwound,
Suicide,
The Saints,
Eyeless In Gaza,
World's Most,
Ohio Players,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Ronan,
Andrew Hill,
June of 44,
Robert Wyatt,
Harpers Bizarre,
Con Funk Shun,
Fat Boys,
Boredoms,
Adolescents,
Essential Logic,
The Dave Clark Five,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
David Axelrod,
Bluetip,
Talk Talk,
Big Daddy Kane,
Young Marble Giants,
Jeru the Damaja,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Laurel Aitken,
Jimmy McGriff,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Aloha Tigers,
Rapeman,
The Knickerbockers,
The Evens,
Whodini,
Mandrill,
Alton Ellis,
the Swans,
The Fugs,
Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance.
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.