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 Israel and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Jimmy McGriff to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Lyres. All the underground hits.
All The Index tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Camberwell Now record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Doors record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Avey Tare,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Brass Construction,
Tom Boy,
Terrestrial Tones,
Flamin' Groovies,
Aaron Thompson,
The Trojans,
Joe Smooth,
Albert Ayler,
Whodini,
Rufus Thomas,
Cal Tjader,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
DNA,
Barclay James Harvest,
Fatback Band,
Eli Mardock,
Gang of Four,
Youth Brigade,
John Holt,
Ultra Naté,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Kerri Chandler,
Can,
Ossler,
James White and The Blacks,
The Modern Lovers,
The Victims,
The Cowsills,
Khruangbin,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
David Bowie,
Easy Going,
Robert Wyatt,
Symarip,
Sex Pistols,
Marshall Jefferson,
Japan,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
David McCallum,
The Associates,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Cameo,
Parry Music,
Rhythm & Sound,
Excepter,
Piero Umiliani,
The Searchers,
A Certain Ratio,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Second Layer,
Tim Buckley,
Suicide,
These Immortal Souls,
Yellowson,
Faust,
Wire,
ABBA,
Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon.
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.