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 Vietnam and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Detroit Cobras to the jazz 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 Rufus Thomas. All the underground hits.
All AZ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every 8 Eyed Spy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Residents,
Bronski Beat,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sound Behaviour,
The Stooges,
The Gladiators,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sun City Girls,
The Smoke,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sparks,
Cymande,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pet Shop Boys,
New York Dolls,
Vainqueur,
The Motions,
Gang of Four,
Lalo Schifrin,
Television Personalities,
The Pretty Things,
Lakeside,
Amon Düül II,
Average White Band,
Dark Day,
Sonny Sharrock,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Albert Ayler,
Warren Ellis,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
DNA,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Rekid,
Cybotron,
The Dead C,
Jeru the Damaja,
Jacques Brel,
Deadbeat,
KRS-One,
Second Layer,
James White and The Blacks,
The Slackers,
The Golliwogs,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Johnny Osbourne,
Glenn Branca,
ABBA,
Bad Manners,
Kurtis Blow,
Robert Görl,
Johnny Clarke,
Adolescents,
Saccharine Trust,
Ralphi Rosario,
Magma,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Youth Brigade,
Lower 48,
the Germs,
Matthew Halsall,
Boz Scaggs,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins.
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.