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 Kosovo and from Columbus.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 guitar 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 Dorothy Ashby to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Alarm Clocks. All the underground hits.
All Sister Nancy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gories 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
The Slits,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Radiohead,
Mantronix,
Terry Callier,
Kerri Chandler,
Crime,
Lou Christie,
The United States of America,
Shoche,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Skaos,
Barrington Levy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Loose Ends,
Suburban Knight,
Tomorrow,
Ornette Coleman,
DJ Style,
Lindisfarne,
The Dirtbombs,
The Last Poets,
The Barracudas,
Crash Course in Science,
Inner City,
Babytalk,
Fat Boys,
The Pretty Things,
Con Funk Shun,
Sandy B,
The Gap Band,
Pantaleimon,
Letta Mbulu,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Gories,
The Blues Magoos,
Charles Mingus,
Basic Channel,
Alton Ellis,
The Moody Blues,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Busters,
The Saints,
X-102,
The Vogues,
Q65,
Joe Smooth,
Gang Green,
Scion,
Arthur Verocai,
Zero Boys,
Mad Mike,
Hot Snakes,
Erasure,
The Cowsills,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Soul Sonic Force,
Marcia Griffiths,
Danielle Patucci,
Sarah Menescal,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.