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 Tonga and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Joyce Sims. All the underground hits.
All Man Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Monks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mantronix record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Theoretical Girls,
The Mummies,
The Fire Engines,
Chrome,
Lou Reed,
The Angels of Light,
Black Moon,
China Crisis,
Bush Tetras,
Amazonics,
Dorothy Ashby,
Eden Ahbez,
Warren Ellis,
Ituana,
Jeru the Damaja,
Marc Almond,
Nick Fraelich,
Malaria!,
Reuben Wilson,
James White and The Blacks,
Quando Quango,
Kaleidoscope,
Popol Vuh,
Judy Mowatt,
Davy DMX,
The Monks,
Stiv Bators,
T.S.O.L.,
Ralphi Rosario,
Yazoo,
Monks,
Motorama,
The Litter,
Rapeman,
Bootsy Collins,
The Fuzztones,
The Busters,
Sister Nancy,
Wings,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Byron Stingily,
Bobby Byrd,
Pole,
Pulsallama,
the Slits,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Eric Dolphy,
Marmalade,
The Stooges,
Funkadelic,
Marvin Gaye,
Liliput,
Q65,
Fad Gadget,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Roxette,
The Slits,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Mandrill,
Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne.
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.