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 Germany and from Manila.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Tokyo.
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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Marshall Jefferson to the jazz 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 Wally Richardson. All the underground hits.
All Public Enemy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Eating Sloth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Motions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kayak,
Marc Almond,
Minutemen,
the Normal,
Bauhaus,
Piero Umiliani,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Radio Birdman,
Juan Atkins,
Royal Trux,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Flash Fearless,
David Bowie,
Lou Reed,
Alphaville,
Sight & Sound,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Arcadia,
U.S. Maple,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Radiopuhelimet,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Cowsills,
Schoolly D,
Tim Buckley,
Aloha Tigers,
James White and The Blacks,
The Moody Blues,
Fear,
Kerri Chandler,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Kaleidoscope,
Silicon Teens,
Masters at Work,
Isaac Hayes,
Gang Gang Dance,
Magma,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Joyce Sims,
Henry Cow,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Joe Finger,
The Smiths,
CMW,
John Coltrane,
Pylon,
The Modern Lovers,
Quando Quango,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Gories,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Durutti Column,
Sister Nancy,
Big Daddy Kane,
Pere Ubu,
Scott Walker,
Wolf Eyes,
Cameo,
Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry.
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.