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 Burundi and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Pere Ubu to the jazz 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 The Blues Magoos. All the underground hits.
All Charles Mingus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Kinks 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rekid,
Sonic Youth,
Pulsallama,
Wings,
Lindisfarne,
Aaron Thompson,
Hashim,
Tom Boy,
Bronski Beat,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Pharoah Sanders,
the Sonics,
Donald Byrd,
Heaven 17,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Gang of Four,
ABC,
Crash Course in Science,
The Barracudas,
Scan 7,
This Heat,
China Crisis,
Spoonie Gee,
Gabor Szabo,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
PIL,
Fatback Band,
Byron Stingily,
Absolute Body Control,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Youth Brigade,
The Motions,
a-ha,
Simply Red,
Blossom Toes,
Janne Schatter,
Sam Rivers,
JFA,
The Slits,
Technova,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Dorothy Ashby,
Adolescents,
The Martian,
The Smiths,
Juan Atkins,
The Stooges,
Brick,
Colin Newman,
Kurtis Blow,
Throbbing Gristle,
T. Rex,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Zapp,
Nas,
Clear Light,
DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak.
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.