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 Palau and from Spokane.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lyon.
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 güiro 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 Whodini 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 China Crisis. All the underground hits.
All The Walker Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pierre Henry 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cosmic Jokers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Alarm Clocks,
Kevin Saunderson,
AZ,
Nas,
Rapeman,
The Buckinghams,
The Mummies,
X-Ray Spex,
The Walker Brothers,
James White and The Blacks,
Swell Maps,
the Slits,
Make Up,
Brothers Johnson,
Television Personalities,
Sandy B,
Fela Kuti,
Minnie Riperton,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Slits,
JFA,
Jacob Miller,
David Axelrod,
Bob Dylan,
Pharoah Sanders,
X-101,
Altered Images,
Young Marble Giants,
Prince Buster,
Flipper,
the Germs,
The Human League,
Black Flag,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Gap Band,
Quando Quango,
Sam Rivers,
The Pop Group,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Animal Collective,
the Normal,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Aaron Thompson,
The Barracudas,
Ituana,
Minutemen,
Babytalk,
The Last Poets,
Silicon Teens,
The Misunderstood,
Cymande,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Spoonie Gee,
Colin Newman,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Smog,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
UT,
The Dead C, The Dead C, The Dead C, The Dead C.
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.