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 Dominica and from Bologna.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 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 The Sisters of Mercy to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David Bowie. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stockholm Monsters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Detroit Cobras,
A Certain Ratio,
Simply Red,
This Heat,
Fad Gadget,
B.T. Express,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Rapeman,
Bang On A Can,
X-Ray Spex,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Dawn Penn,
June Days,
Subhumans,
Cameo,
Theoretical Girls,
a-ha,
The Gories,
Kayak,
Lee Hazlewood,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
One Last Wish,
La Düsseldorf,
Groovy Waters,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Erykah Badu,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Essential Logic,
Skriet,
JFA,
Icehouse,
Jacob Miller,
The Barracudas,
Black Bananas,
The Alarm Clocks,
Barry Ungar,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Grass Roots,
Marvin Gaye,
Toni Rubio,
The Flesh Eaters,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Laurel Aitken,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Neu!,
Half Japanese,
Parry Music,
Prince Buster,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mantronix,
Minnie Riperton,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
DJ Sneak,
Au Pairs,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Soft Machine,
ABBA,
The Mojo Men,
Cybotron,
Tears for Fears,
Throbbing Gristle,
Pharoah Sanders,
Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, Sparks.
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.