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 Togo and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 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 Mark Hollis to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Slick Rick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Electric Prunes 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thompson Twins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Don Cherry,
June Days,
Silicon Teens,
Vainqueur,
Echospace,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Hashim,
John Coltrane,
The Flesh Eaters,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Babytalk,
Nirvana,
Delta 5,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Unwound,
Suicide,
Ponytail,
Joe Finger,
Byron Stingily,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Golliwogs,
David Bowie,
Boogie Down Productions,
Ultravox,
Black Moon,
Negative Approach,
Bobby Hutcherson,
FM Einheit,
Bauhaus,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Monochrome Set,
Loose Ends,
Reagan Youth,
The Human League,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Hoover,
The Gladiators,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Roxy Music,
Yellowson,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Chrome,
The Mummies,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Johnny Osbourne,
Michelle Simonal,
Crispy Ambulance,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Dawn Penn,
Theoretical Girls,
The Walker Brothers,
Beasts of Bourbon,
John Foxx,
Swell Maps,
Rufus Thomas,
Nico,
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow.
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.