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 Grenada and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Beijing.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Bobby Womack to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Glambeats Corp. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Larry & the Blue Notes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Thompson Twins,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Tommy Roe,
a-ha,
La Düsseldorf,
Moebius,
Hoover,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Black Pus,
Ten City,
The Trojans,
Warsaw,
Cluster,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Fluxion,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
L. Decosne,
T.S.O.L.,
Joensuu 1685,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Monochrome Set,
The Velvet Underground,
Jacob Miller,
Kenny Larkin,
Leonard Cohen,
Mandrill,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Lee Hazlewood,
Glenn Branca,
The Neon Judgement,
Lightning Bolt,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
LL Cool J,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Pagans,
Curtis Mayfield,
Panda Bear,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Outsiders,
Alice Coltrane,
Eddi Front,
Johnny Clarke,
Erasure,
The Red Krayola,
Girls At Our Best!,
Tears for Fears,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ossler,
The Young Rascals,
Marc Almond,
Toni Rubio,
Black Flag,
Donald Byrd,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lower 48,
Amazonics,
Q and Not U,
Moby Grape,
Man Eating Sloth,
Sam Rivers,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.