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 Ethiopia and from Cairo.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Archie Shepp to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Underground Resistance. All the underground hits.
All The Walker Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nation of Ulysses record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grey Daturas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Girls At Our Best!,
The Doors,
Bush Tetras,
Deepchord,
Gregory Isaacs,
Blancmange,
Pere Ubu,
Darondo,
Wire,
Flipper,
The Fall,
Skaos,
Don Cherry,
The Grass Roots,
Nik Kershaw,
Junior Murvin,
Moebius,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Gories,
Tres Demented,
Sixth Finger,
Oblivians,
John Cale,
The Techniques,
Ituana,
Alice Coltrane,
Can,
Newcleus,
Reagan Youth,
Surgeon,
The Happenings,
Byron Stingily,
Ten City,
The Victims,
Grauzone,
KRS-One,
Black Sheep,
Scan 7,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Boz Scaggs,
Bob Dylan,
The Slits,
June Days,
Visage,
The Monks,
Marshall Jefferson,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
ABBA,
Fatback Band,
Masters at Work,
Hashim,
Mad Mike,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Slave,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Simply Red,
Blossom Toes,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science.
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.