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 San Marino and from Manila.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Rufus Thomas to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Jacques Brel. All the underground hits.
All Janne Schatter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nico record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joy Division record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Japan,
Unwound,
Sandy B,
Panda Bear,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sly & The Family Stone,
World's Most,
Stetsasonic,
Amon Düül,
John Foxx,
Average White Band,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Minutemen,
Kevin Saunderson,
Easy Going,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
In Retrospect,
Eric B and Rakim,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
X-101,
The Fire Engines,
MC5,
Stereo Dub,
Mission of Burma,
Intrusion,
Gabor Szabo,
Dead Boys,
Nik Kershaw,
The Misunderstood,
The Fall,
the Human League,
The Real Kids,
Man Eating Sloth,
Judy Mowatt,
Pantytec,
DNA,
Joe Finger,
Ronnie Foster,
John Holt,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Glenn Branca,
Johnny Osbourne,
Bush Tetras,
Dual Sessions,
The Selecter,
Talk Talk,
Con Funk Shun,
Curtis Mayfield,
Chris & Cosey,
ABC,
Peter & Gordon,
the Bar-Kays,
Fluxion,
a-ha,
Lakeside,
Tropical Tobacco,
Mad Mike,
Bang On A Can,
Qualms,
Yellowson,
The Neon Judgement,
Warren Ellis,
James White and The Blacks,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.