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 Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 808 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 X-Ray Spex to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Letta Mbulu. All the underground hits.
All Jacques Brel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Raincoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The J.B.'s,
Lindisfarne,
This Heat,
Massinfluence,
the Association,
The Walker Brothers,
Thee Headcoats,
Essential Logic,
Brand Nubian,
Bobby Sherman,
Amon Düül II,
Matthew Halsall,
Terry Callier,
June Days,
Gong,
Negative Approach,
Bill Wells,
The Slackers,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Pussy Galore,
Little Man,
The Fortunes,
Wire,
Porter Ricks,
The Gladiators,
Gil Scott Heron,
John Holt,
Mad Mike,
The Dave Clark Five,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Saccharine Trust,
Pierre Henry,
CMW,
Technova,
David Bowie,
the Sonics,
Suicide,
Man Eating Sloth,
Monks,
Yusef Lateef,
The Detroit Cobras,
the Germs,
Cecil Taylor,
Lightning Bolt,
Dawn Penn,
Groovy Waters,
Popol Vuh,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Names,
Hashim,
Lou Christie,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Wolf Eyes,
Dual Sessions,
Maleditus Sound,
Kurtis Blow,
Warren Ellis,
The Flesh Eaters,
Colin Newman,
Outsiders,
Hasil Adkins,
Fugazi,
Soul II Soul, Soul II Soul, Soul II Soul, Soul II Soul.
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.