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 Mongolia and from Jakarta.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Philadelphia.
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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Sam Rivers to the grime 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 Jeff Lynne. All the underground hits.
All Josef K tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a World's Most record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
Sister Nancy,
K-Klass,
Kurtis Blow,
New Order,
The Human League,
the Slits,
The Beau Brummels,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Lakeside,
Young Marble Giants,
Fela Kuti,
Kaleidoscope,
Desert Stars,
U.S. Maple,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Section 25,
The Cramps,
The Standells,
The Remains,
The Smoke,
Moss Icon,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Sällskapet,
Glambeats Corp.,
8 Eyed Spy,
Lou Reed,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Alton Ellis,
Sun City Girls,
The Walker Brothers,
Michelle Simonal,
Inner City,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Popol Vuh,
Animal Collective,
Metal Thangz,
The Angels of Light,
Ronnie Foster,
La Düsseldorf,
Alison Limerick,
Judy Mowatt,
Trumans Water,
The Doors,
Monks,
Pere Ubu,
China Crisis,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Gories,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Residents,
Danielle Patucci,
Joyce Sims,
Terrestrial Tones,
Aswad,
Nation of Ulysses,
Youth Brigade,
Sam Rivers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Nils Olav, Nils Olav, Nils Olav, Nils Olav.
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.