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 Yemen and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Music Machine to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Terrestrial Tones. All the underground hits.
All F. McDonald tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Derrick May,
Excepter,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Mojo Men,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
New Order,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lalo Schifrin,
R.M.O.,
B.T. Express,
Sex Pistols,
Jacques Brel,
The J.B.'s,
F. McDonald,
Groovy Waters,
Pere Ubu,
Negative Approach,
John Cale,
Moss Icon,
10cc,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sixth Finger,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Pussy Galore,
Model 500,
Freddie Wadling,
Ossler,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Joyce Sims,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Lou Christie,
Eurythmics,
Neu!,
Little Man,
D'Angelo,
JFA,
Barclay James Harvest,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Monks,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Barracudas,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Funkadelic,
The Standells,
Loose Ends,
Audionom,
Half Japanese,
Mission of Burma,
Eli Mardock,
The Evens,
Sight & Sound,
The Move,
Lucky Dragons,
Accadde A,
Patti Smith,
Marmalade,
Cluster,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Seeds,
Nas,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.