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 Chile and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Jandek to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band. All the underground hits.
All Yellowson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Interpol record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Babytalk,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
the Swans,
MC5,
Loose Ends,
Ituana,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Vogues,
The Knickerbockers,
Bootsy Collins,
Schoolly D,
Accadde A,
The Move,
Lalo Schifrin,
Sällskapet,
The Flesh Eaters,
Tears for Fears,
FM Einheit,
Moss Icon,
Idris Muhammad,
Eli Mardock,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Negative Approach,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gang Green,
Eric B and Rakim,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Hasil Adkins,
The Real Kids,
Youth Brigade,
Talk Talk,
Joyce Sims,
Judy Mowatt,
Lebanon Hanover,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Theoretical Girls,
Black Bananas,
Essential Logic,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Josef K,
Gichy Dan,
Rotary Connection,
Hoover,
Colin Newman,
U.S. Maple,
Spandau Ballet,
Tubeway Army,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
MDC,
The Black Dice,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Gories,
One Last Wish,
Crispian St. Peters,
Drexciya,
Joy Division,
L. Decosne,
Bizarre Inc.,
Big Daddy Kane,
Godley & Creme,
Black Moon, Black Moon, Black Moon, Black Moon.
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.