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 Ethiopia and from Jakarta.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Lonnie Liston Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stiv Bators 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barbara Tucker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Subhumans,
The Velvet Underground,
Cameo,
Hardrive,
Index,
Curtis Mayfield,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Scion,
The American Breed,
Aural Exciters,
Second Layer,
Fugazi,
Mars,
Simply Red,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Yazoo,
the Fania All-Stars,
Babytalk,
Suicide,
Pet Shop Boys,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Section 25,
Icehouse,
The Trojans,
Sugar Minott,
Joe Smooth,
Kaleidoscope,
Radiohead,
David Axelrod,
Howard Jones,
a-ha,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gang Green,
The Raincoats,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Motions,
Joy Division,
Ludus,
Barbara Tucker,
the Bar-Kays,
Toni Rubio,
Sun Ra,
The Young Rascals,
the Slits,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Crooked Eye,
Bronski Beat,
Scrapy,
Magma,
The Move,
Ken Boothe,
Smog,
Ponytail,
Bad Manners,
The Electric Prunes,
The Detroit Cobras,
China Crisis,
Pierre Henry,
Black Flag,
Pagans, Pagans, Pagans, Pagans.
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.