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 Gabon and from Mexico City.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 theremin 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 The Red Krayola to the electroclash 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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thee Headcoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 theremin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scion record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
The Selecter,
ABC,
Deakin,
The Grass Roots,
Brand Nubian,
Ultra Naté,
The Seeds,
Quadrant,
The Gories,
Sam Rivers,
a-ha,
Lalo Schifrin,
Half Japanese,
New Age Steppers,
B.T. Express,
Camberwell Now,
Sonic Youth,
World's Most,
Jeff Lynne,
Patti Smith,
Royal Trux,
Traffic Nightmare,
T. Rex,
Leonard Cohen,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Moleskins,
EPMD,
Ornette Coleman,
Sly & The Family Stone,
New Order,
Mo-Dettes,
Adolescents,
Al Stewart,
Black Bananas,
Suburban Knight,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Music Machine,
Bootsy Collins,
Brass Construction,
Joe Smooth,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gang Gang Dance,
Qualms,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Gun Club,
Hasil Adkins,
Negative Approach,
Lee Hazlewood,
Y Pants,
Eric Dolphy,
Sound Behaviour,
Faraquet,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Masters at Work,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sonny Sharrock,
Radiohead,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
the Association, the Association, the Association, the Association.
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.