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 Bahamas and from Accra.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 oboe 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 The Alarm Clocks to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 David Bowie. All the underground hits.
All Reagan Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Connie Case record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Skatalites,
Moss Icon,
Banda Bassotti,
Lebanon Hanover,
Roxy Music,
Sarah Menescal,
Underground Resistance,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Sister Nancy,
Jacob Miller,
Suicide,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Urselle,
Camouflage,
Joyce Sims,
Niagra,
Monolake,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Lou Christie,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Stereo Dub,
Little Man,
The Blues Magoos,
Fluxion,
Sexual Harrassment,
Lightning Bolt,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Knickerbockers,
Roger Hodgson,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Judy Mowatt,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Kurtis Blow,
Flamin' Groovies,
Danielle Patucci,
The Seeds,
Marine Girls,
Mary Jane Girls,
Marmalade,
Lungfish,
Sällskapet,
June of 44,
Man Eating Sloth,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Real Kids,
Skarface,
Joey Negro,
The Flesh Eaters,
Gichy Dan,
Alphaville,
This Heat,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Patti Smith,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Black Pus,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
Gian Franco Pienzio, Gian Franco Pienzio, Gian Franco Pienzio, Gian Franco Pienzio.
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.