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 Mali and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Sexual Harrassment. All the underground hits.
All The Last Poets tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Halsall record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 oboe and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Smiths,
Gastr Del Sol,
Marcia Griffiths,
Roy Ayers,
Laurel Aitken,
The Blackbyrds,
Sparks,
The Music Machine,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Magazine,
L. Decosne,
The Gun Club,
The Selecter,
It's A Beautiful Day,
the Soft Cell,
Fad Gadget,
Porter Ricks,
Ronan,
Procol Harum,
Underground Resistance,
Jandek,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Doobie Brothers,
This Heat,
The Move,
Morten Harket,
China Crisis,
Oblivians,
UT,
Ossler,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Inner City,
The Human League,
The Modern Lovers,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ponytail,
Pussy Galore,
Rosa Yemen,
Man Parrish,
Blancmange,
Adolescents,
Sixth Finger,
Barclay James Harvest,
Anakelly,
Rufus Thomas,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Pop Group,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Mandrill,
Arab on Radar,
The Mummies,
Nick Fraelich,
Radio Birdman,
Anthony Braxton,
Quadrant,
Soulsonic Force,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Duran Duran,
Kerrie Biddell,
Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun.
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.