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 St Lucia and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in 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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 Donald Fagen 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 Jesus and Mary Chain to the rap 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 Ten City. All the underground hits.
All Magma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlbäck 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 a harpsichord and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scratch Acid,
The Knickerbockers,
Avey Tare,
The Monks,
Au Pairs,
The Music Machine,
Youth Brigade,
Eric Copeland,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Mo-Dettes,
Grauzone,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Circle Jerks,
ABC,
Pharoah Sanders,
Newcleus,
Donald Byrd,
The Cowsills,
Procol Harum,
Frankie Knuckles,
Jeff Lynne,
Can,
Minutemen,
Rapeman,
The Moleskins,
Althea and Donna,
The Techniques,
Iggy Pop,
Robert Görl,
the Fania All-Stars,
Crime,
Lou Reed,
Grandmaster Flash,
Kaleidoscope,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Residents,
Ossler,
Sex Pistols,
Soulsonic Force,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Anthony Braxton,
Little Man,
Fear,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Echospace,
New York Dolls,
Audionom,
The Searchers,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
D'Angelo,
Erykah Badu,
Rosa Yemen,
The Sound,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Neil Young,
Vladislav Delay,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Count Five,
The Tremeloes,
The Fire Engines,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Last Poets,
Grey Daturas,
Popol Vuh,
Neu!, Neu!, Neu!, Neu!.
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.