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 Madagascar and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Toronto.
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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Second Layer to the disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 the Bar-Kays. All the underground hits.
All Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fad Gadget record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Toasters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
Skriet,
Bluetip,
Essential Logic,
The Remains,
Warsaw,
Gang Starr,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kerrie Biddell,
Charles Mingus,
48th St. Collective,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Motorama,
Delon & Dalcan,
Stereo Dub,
Absolute Body Control,
Saccharine Trust,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Fat Boys,
Albert Ayler,
Jimmy McGriff,
New Age Steppers,
Popol Vuh,
Matthew Halsall,
Scan 7,
The Kinks,
The Durutti Column,
Alton Ellis,
Soft Machine,
Tim Buckley,
Ronnie Foster,
Soul II Soul,
Judy Mowatt,
Cymande,
Janne Schatter,
Dennis Brown,
Hasil Adkins,
T. Rex,
Severed Heads,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Los Fastidios,
Joyce Sims,
Scrapy,
Patti Smith,
Suicide,
The Misunderstood,
Amazonics,
Tres Demented,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Mission of Burma,
Brothers Johnson,
The Names,
Suburban Knight,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
DNA,
Grauzone,
Eurythmics,
The Doors,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Human League,
The Motions,
Ten City, Ten City, Ten City, Ten City.
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.