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 San Marino and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 mellotron 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 Morten Harket to the electroclash 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 Sixth Finger. All the underground hits.
All Silicon Teens tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Angels of Light 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Curtis Mayfield record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lou Christie,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Susan Cadogan,
Spoonie Gee,
Maleditus Sound,
Cameo,
Ice-T,
Excepter,
Interpol,
Nas,
The Music Machine,
Barrington Levy,
David Axelrod,
T. Rex,
Ultimate Spinach,
Ornette Coleman,
Jandek,
Crispian St. Peters,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Mark Hollis,
Lakeside,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Ten City,
Soul II Soul,
Erasure,
Anthony Braxton,
Todd Rundgren,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Index,
Pierre Henry,
Basic Channel,
Robert Wyatt,
Lower 48,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Los Fastidios,
The Knickerbockers,
Absolute Body Control,
Subhumans,
Mars,
The Dave Clark Five,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Arab on Radar,
Shuggie Otis,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ohio Players,
Cheater Slicks,
Visage,
Crooked Eye,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Panda Bear,
Lalann,
OOIOO,
Pantytec,
Icehouse,
The United States of America,
Matthew Bourne,
The Pretty Things,
the Swans,
Masters at Work, Masters at Work, Masters at Work, Masters at Work.
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.