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 Laos and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 harpsichord 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 Donald Byrd to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fad Gadget. All the underground hits.
All Byron Stingily tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glambeats Corp. record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wally Richardson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Charles Mingus,
Sugar Minott,
Scratch Acid,
Kevin Saunderson,
Joe Smooth,
Rufus Thomas,
The Doobie Brothers,
Interpol,
The Stooges,
CMW,
Bronski Beat,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Ultravox,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Jerry's Kids,
Audionom,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Kerrie Biddell,
Avey Tare,
Can,
Swans,
Iggy Pop,
Arthur Verocai,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Invisible,
Howard Jones,
Skaos,
Sarah Menescal,
Half Japanese,
The Sound,
Fear,
Ornette Coleman,
Moss Icon,
Sonny Sharrock,
Jeru the Damaja,
Electric Light Orchestra,
the Association,
Basic Channel,
Barry Ungar,
Bizarre Inc.,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
Kaleidoscope,
Fugazi,
Magazine,
June Days,
The Zeros,
Derrick Morgan,
Archie Shepp,
The Pretty Things,
Kurtis Blow,
The Flesh Eaters,
Judy Mowatt,
Whodini,
Pole,
Glenn Branca,
The Toasters,
Slave,
The Slits,
Lakeside,
Scan 7,
The American Breed,
Metal Thangz, Metal Thangz, Metal Thangz, Metal Thangz.
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.