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 Tonga and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Rotary Connection. All the underground hits.
All Second Layer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Model 500 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yazoo,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Can,
Crime,
The Gories,
Animal Collective,
Nico,
Erasure,
Bob Dylan,
Mandrill,
Cymande,
Electric Prunes,
Barry Ungar,
Skarface,
Bush Tetras,
Khruangbin,
Henry Cow,
the Soft Cell,
Brand Nubian,
Sun City Girls,
Mary Jane Girls,
Marine Girls,
The Cramps,
Minny Pops,
Mad Mike,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Spandau Ballet,
Silicon Teens,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Half Japanese,
Connie Case,
Wolf Eyes,
Sex Pistols,
The Standells,
U.S. Maple,
Guru Guru,
Ultimate Spinach,
Alice Coltrane,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Happenings,
The Neon Judgement,
The Beau Brummels,
The Barracudas,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Mantronix,
Lakeside,
Blake Baxter,
L. Decosne,
Blancmange,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Johnny Osbourne,
Joensuu 1685,
Todd Rundgren,
Outsiders,
Cecil Taylor,
The Skatalites,
Goldenarms,
Wally Richardson,
Young Marble Giants,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.