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 Samoa and from Tehran.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Eric Dolphy to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Liaisons Dangereuses. All the underground hits.
All The Flesh Eaters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lungfish 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lower 48 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Birthday Party,
Depeche Mode,
The Motions,
Scratch Acid,
Gang of Four,
The Leaves,
Scientists,
Minnie Riperton,
Andrew Hill,
R.M.O.,
The Blues Magoos,
Peter & Gordon,
Stetsasonic,
LL Cool J,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Marc Almond,
Rakim,
Qualms,
The Modern Lovers,
Q65,
Rosa Yemen,
James White and The Blacks,
Pole,
Iggy Pop,
Connie Case,
The Golliwogs,
MC5,
Mission of Burma,
Funkadelic,
Radiohead,
Robert Wyatt,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Saints,
Bush Tetras,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Brass Construction,
Lindisfarne,
Crispy Ambulance,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Juan Atkins,
Make Up,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Smog,
The Pretty Things,
Nico,
Rekid,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Sex Pistols,
The Techniques,
Jimmy McGriff,
Surgeon,
Agent Orange,
Lyres,
Public Enemy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Joy Division,
Rod Modell,
Section 25, Section 25, Section 25, Section 25.
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.