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 Comoros and from Manila.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Sight & Sound to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 the Germs. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Larry & the Blue Notes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tropical Tobacco,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
the Slits,
Eden Ahbez,
Bauhaus,
Man Parrish,
The Stooges,
Cluster,
The Wake,
The Gladiators,
Soul Sonic Force,
Adolescents,
Lindisfarne,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Make Up,
Sister Nancy,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Simply Red,
The Associates,
Jandek,
Bang On A Can,
DNA,
Scan 7,
In Retrospect,
Erykah Badu,
Skarface,
Ice-T,
Pierre Henry,
Dave Gahan,
Wasted Youth,
Ken Boothe,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Angels of Light,
Don Cherry,
The Motions,
Joe Smooth,
Parry Music,
The Sound,
The Toasters,
Al Stewart,
Camouflage,
Brick,
The Skatalites,
John Lydon,
Jeff Lynne,
Magma,
Grauzone,
Intrusion,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Jacques Brel,
Lyres,
Mantronix,
Ituana,
Bad Manners,
Agitation Free,
Lalo Schifrin,
Urselle,
Jerry's Kids,
Excepter,
Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca.
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.