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 Greece 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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 808 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 Archie Shepp to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang On A Can record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 harpsichord and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brass Construction record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Con Funk Shun,
The Dave Clark Five,
Radiohead,
Faust,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
8 Eyed Spy,
Ossler,
The Knickerbockers,
Derrick May,
LL Cool J,
Ken Boothe,
Supertramp,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Grass Roots,
The Last Poets,
Toni Rubio,
Nico,
Circle Jerks,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Wings,
Scientists,
Minnie Riperton,
Harry Pussy,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Joensuu 1685,
Depeche Mode,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Moebius,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Blake Baxter,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Terrestrial Tones,
Massinfluence,
The Count Five,
Shoche,
Nation of Ulysses,
Johnny Osbourne,
Surgeon,
Andrew Hill,
Hasil Adkins,
Al Stewart,
Mo-Dettes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Aural Exciters,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Siglo XX,
Roger Hodgson,
Judy Mowatt,
Second Layer,
Basic Channel,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lou Christie,
H. Thieme,
Crash Course in Science,
Funkadelic,
Gang Gang Dance,
Tomorrow,
Cabaret Voltaire,
the Sonics,
Mark Hollis,
Khruangbin,
Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza.
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.