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 Peru and from Spokane.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 rhodes 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 Japan to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Gichy Dan. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rufus Thomas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Altered Images record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Clarke,
Albert Ayler,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Marshall Jefferson,
Agitation Free,
Crime,
Severed Heads,
Joy Division,
Wolf Eyes,
Kerri Chandler,
Moss Icon,
John Coltrane,
Das Ding,
Lower 48,
Sun City Girls,
Curtis Mayfield,
DNA,
Brothers Johnson,
Traffic Nightmare,
Nik Kershaw,
Mandrill,
Black Flag,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Selecter,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
In Retrospect,
T.S.O.L.,
The Divine Comedy,
Liliput,
Bad Manners,
10cc,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Motorama,
Warren Ellis,
Chris Corsano,
Guru Guru,
The Moody Blues,
Newcleus,
Cal Tjader,
Scratch Acid,
Livin' Joy,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
John Lydon,
Minnie Riperton,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Spoonie Gee,
Loose Ends,
Howard Jones,
The Saints,
Blancmange,
Shoche,
Camberwell Now,
China Crisis,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Wasted Youth,
Leonard Cohen,
X-102,
Supertramp,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bizarre Inc.,
June Days, June Days, June Days, June Days.
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.