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 Cambodia and from Lyon.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 Michael McDonald 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 Smiths to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gian Franco Pienzio. All the underground hits.
All Sly & The Family Stone tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Near 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Peanut Butter Conspiracy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wings,
Accadde A,
Black Bananas,
Shuggie Otis,
Minnie Riperton,
Shoche,
Icehouse,
Gabor Szabo,
Marcia Griffiths,
Von Mondo,
One Last Wish,
Crash Course in Science,
Bootsy Collins,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Technova,
Moebius,
Loose Ends,
The Evens,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Fad Gadget,
Altered Images,
Maleditus Sound,
Swans,
Jandek,
Joy Division,
Toni Rubio,
The Vogues,
Andrew Hill,
Jeru the Damaja,
This Heat,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Cal Tjader,
Pagans,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Faraquet,
Sällskapet,
Average White Band,
The Skatalites,
Eve St. Jones,
The Real Kids,
Stetsasonic,
Godley & Creme,
The Modern Lovers,
The Fugs,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Move,
Lower 48,
T. Rex,
Sun City Girls,
The Knickerbockers,
Fluxion,
The Fortunes,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Los Fastidios,
The Remains,
The Moleskins,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Neu!,
Tom Boy,
Ronan,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill.
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.