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 Congo and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 808 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 Danielle Patucci to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All Judy Mowatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Darondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord 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 spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dead C,
Outsiders,
The Residents,
Sexual Harrassment,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Todd Terry,
Mark Hollis,
Excepter,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Tropical Tobacco,
Flash Fearless,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Soft Cell,
Fat Boys,
Cymande,
Fluxion,
Bang On A Can,
The Barracudas,
Sun City Girls,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Wake,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Banda Bassotti,
Pharoah Sanders,
Neu!,
Circle Jerks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Pantytec,
Howard Jones,
DNA,
Procol Harum,
Deepchord,
Donny Hathaway,
T. Rex,
Von Mondo,
Black Bananas,
The Alarm Clocks,
Oneida,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
World's Most,
Cluster,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Flesh Eaters,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Quando Quango,
Monks,
48th St. Collective,
Juan Atkins,
Bootsy Collins,
The Neon Judgement,
Leonard Cohen,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Jesper Dahlback,
Desert Stars,
Saccharine Trust,
The Knickerbockers,
Stockholm Monsters,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.