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 Ghana and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 synthesizer 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 Robert Wyatt to the dance 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 Outsiders. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Osbourne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultramagnetic MC's 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Excepter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swell Maps,
Flipper,
the Normal,
The Blues Magoos,
Stereo Dub,
Saccharine Trust,
Crime,
Leonard Cohen,
Roy Ayers,
The Victims,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Howard Jones,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Stooges,
Eden Ahbez,
Rakim,
Rufus Thomas,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Moss Icon,
Ash Ra Tempel,
the Soft Cell,
Public Enemy,
Model 500,
the Sonics,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Jandek,
Ken Boothe,
Grauzone,
Lower 48,
Brothers Johnson,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Youth Brigade,
It's A Beautiful Day,
June Days,
Popol Vuh,
Mad Mike,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Tomorrow,
The Seeds,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Johnny Clarke,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The United States of America,
Dawn Penn,
Mo-Dettes,
Boz Scaggs,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Harry Pussy,
Connie Case,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Blackbyrds,
Bob Dylan,
T.S.O.L.,
The Beau Brummels,
Intrusion,
Drive Like Jehu,
Section 25,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.