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 Congo and from Delhi.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 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 Peter & Gordon to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Kenny Larkin. All the underground hits.
All The Mighty Diamonds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Monks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ponytail record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rufus Thomas,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Rakim,
Idris Muhammad,
Desert Stars,
X-102,
Stereo Dub,
Marmalade,
the Association,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Modern Lovers,
Brand Nubian,
Piero Umiliani,
The Cramps,
Reagan Youth,
The Searchers,
Ituana,
Parry Music,
Joe Finger,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Lindisfarne,
Grey Daturas,
The Gun Club,
Faust,
Lebanon Hanover,
Kaleidoscope,
Kenny Larkin,
Heaven 17,
The Cowsills,
Gong,
Qualms,
Loose Ends,
Bill Wells,
The Stooges,
Smog,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Fad Gadget,
PIL,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Eurythmics,
Depeche Mode,
Alphaville,
Archie Shepp,
The Residents,
The Invisible,
Simply Red,
Slave,
Robert Wyatt,
John Cale,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Circle Jerks,
8 Eyed Spy,
Blake Baxter,
The Standells,
Lightning Bolt,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Doobie Brothers,
This Heat,
Stetsasonic,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Durutti Column,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.