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 Benin and from Lagos.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 güiro 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 Quantec to the disco 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 Crash Course in Science. All the underground hits.
All Hoover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Rekid,
Animal Collective,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Funkadelic,
Don Cherry,
Laurel Aitken,
Maleditus Sound,
World's Most,
The Pretty Things,
Ossler,
CMW,
10cc,
Rotary Connection,
Shoche,
Crispian St. Peters,
Reagan Youth,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Jacques Brel,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
DJ Style,
The Gun Club,
Boz Scaggs,
The Angels of Light,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Aural Exciters,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
8 Eyed Spy,
Quadrant,
Althea and Donna,
Stiv Bators,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kevin Saunderson,
Electric Light Orchestra,
June Days,
Spandau Ballet,
Ultravox,
Rites of Spring,
The Zeros,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Carl Craig,
The New Christs,
Boogie Down Productions,
Moby Grape,
Tomorrow,
Soulsonic Force,
Yazoo,
The Fall,
Desert Stars,
Negative Approach,
The Slits,
The Knickerbockers,
Sex Pistols,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Tim Buckley,
Andrew Hill,
Dual Sessions,
Parry Music,
Letta Mbulu,
OOIOO,
Monolake,
Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks, Buzzcocks.
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.