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 Rwanda and from Calgary.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Columbus.
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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Boredoms 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 The Kinks. All the underground hits.
All Pere Ubu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deadbeat record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neil Young & Crazy Horse record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Barry Ungar,
Wire,
Pylon,
Scan 7,
The Offenders,
David Axelrod,
Symarip,
Nik Kershaw,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Lungfish,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Ituana,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sister Nancy,
Section 25,
Soft Cell,
Susan Cadogan,
The Saints,
X-102,
Sugar Minott,
Black Sheep,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Happenings,
Ludus,
Arab on Radar,
Thee Headcoats,
Outsiders,
The Smiths,
Model 500,
The Residents,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Isaac Hayes,
John Lydon,
Marcia Griffiths,
Al Stewart,
the Soft Cell,
Andrew Hill,
The Mummies,
Junior Murvin,
Minny Pops,
Ultra Naté,
Grauzone,
Groovy Waters,
The Flesh Eaters,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Joe Smooth,
Khruangbin,
Hardrive,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
KRS-One,
Lou Christie,
The Skatalites,
Camberwell Now,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Visage,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
A Certain Ratio,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.