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 Moldova and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Monks to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Sexual Harrassment. All the underground hits.
All Ultramagnetic MC's tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every June Days record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an organ and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sonic Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultimate Spinach,
Robert Görl,
Marine Girls,
Mo-Dettes,
Josef K,
Second Layer,
Pantytec,
Don Cherry,
Radiohead,
Black Pus,
Roy Ayers,
Todd Terry,
Adolescents,
Whodini,
Thompson Twins,
Quando Quango,
Donny Hathaway,
The Slits,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sister Nancy,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Zeros,
Jawbox,
The Trojans,
the Sonics,
Rites of Spring,
Desert Stars,
Alice Coltrane,
The Names,
Mandrill,
Maurizio,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Moebius,
Crispian St. Peters,
Juan Atkins,
Gong,
The Cure,
Moss Icon,
Visage,
Babytalk,
The Invisible,
Severed Heads,
Reagan Youth,
Flipper,
Funky Four + One,
The Seeds,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Scrapy,
The Tremeloes,
The Raincoats,
The Martian,
Sugar Minott,
Fad Gadget,
Groovy Waters,
Robert Wyatt,
L. Decosne,
Popol Vuh,
Cluster,
Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force.
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.