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 Brunei and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 clarinet 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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade to the techno 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 Mr. Review. All the underground hits.
All Alice Coltrane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Adolescents 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
F. McDonald,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Surgeon,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Moby Grape,
Suburban Knight,
Dark Day,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Grauzone,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Moss Icon,
Hardrive,
Minny Pops,
Scratch Acid,
the Soft Cell,
Motorama,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Theoretical Girls,
Television,
Cheater Slicks,
New Order,
Wings,
Thompson Twins,
Johnny Clarke,
Judy Mowatt,
The Mummies,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Q and Not U,
The Fortunes,
Popol Vuh,
Nirvana,
UT,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Slackers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Gong,
Rotary Connection,
Rekid,
Mary Jane Girls,
These Immortal Souls,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Saints,
This Heat,
Wire,
Rosa Yemen,
Von Mondo,
Underground Resistance,
The Velvet Underground,
Gichy Dan,
Tomorrow,
The Sound,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Lower 48,
David McCallum,
The Gun Club,
Eric B and Rakim,
Das Ding,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Brass Construction,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.