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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 ABC 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 Electric Light Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All Groovy Waters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hoover 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Magma record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Swell Maps,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Human League,
Junior Murvin,
Cybotron,
Angry Samoans,
Ronan,
Sarah Menescal,
Roy Ayers,
Danielle Patucci,
In Retrospect,
Clear Light,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Marvin Gaye,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The New Christs,
Kenny Larkin,
Simply Red,
Sun City Girls,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sound Behaviour,
Gichy Dan,
The Modern Lovers,
Public Image Ltd.,
Saccharine Trust,
Quando Quango,
Q and Not U,
FM Einheit,
Sun Ra,
Spoonie Gee,
Hardrive,
Spandau Ballet,
Wire,
Symarip,
Susan Cadogan,
The Star Department,
Mars,
Easy Going,
Amazonics,
Young Marble Giants,
Prince Buster,
Marmalade,
Drexciya,
Alphaville,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Iggy Pop,
Pylon,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Seeds,
The Electric Prunes,
Blancmange,
KRS-One,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sex Pistols,
Pierre Henry,
Kevin Saunderson,
Hot Snakes,
The Shadows of Knight,
Neil Young,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.