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 Mali and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Marvin Gaye to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Fad Gadget. All the underground hits.
All Franke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Wake record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The United States of America,
Suburban Knight,
Ken Boothe,
Brick,
Soulsonic Force,
FM Einheit,
Unrelated Segments,
Swans,
Altered Images,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Slits,
The Motions,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Infiniti,
This Heat,
The Alarm Clocks,
Moss Icon,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Ohio Players,
Pere Ubu,
Crooked Eye,
Aaron Thompson,
Rapeman,
Rakim,
Bronski Beat,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Golliwogs,
Essential Logic,
La Düsseldorf,
Marmalade,
Zapp,
Derrick May,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Cheater Slicks,
Frankie Knuckles,
Brass Construction,
Sällskapet,
kango's stein massive,
Charles Mingus,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Invisible,
Stiv Bators,
Pet Shop Boys,
Fluxion,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Names,
Ornette Coleman,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Arab on Radar,
The Gun Club,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Neil Young,
Donald Byrd,
Youth Brigade,
Lindisfarne,
Big Daddy Kane,
Subhumans,
Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme.
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.