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 Iran and from Salvador.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Raincoats to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Nation of Ulysses. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blossom Toes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kaleidoscope,
The Index,
The Birthday Party,
Chrome,
The Smiths,
Echospace,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Underground Resistance,
Gang Starr,
Tim Buckley,
Lalo Schifrin,
the Soft Cell,
Patti Smith,
Kerri Chandler,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Absolute Body Control,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Velvet Underground,
DNA,
Motorama,
Altered Images,
Tubeway Army,
T. Rex,
Prince Buster,
Mars,
The Seeds,
Oblivians,
Joyce Sims,
The Slackers,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Ultra Naté,
The Blues Magoos,
Funkadelic,
The Flesh Eaters,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Ken Boothe,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Reagan Youth,
Public Image Ltd.,
Leonard Cohen,
The Doors,
Mandrill,
Lucky Dragons,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Skatalites,
The Names,
The Zeros,
Jimmy McGriff,
Das Ding,
Can,
UT,
Stetsasonic,
Fluxion,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Pantytec,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ornette Coleman,
Warsaw,
Gang of Four,
Nico,
Livin' Joy,
X-101, X-101, X-101, X-101.
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.