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 Taiwan and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 Manchester and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 LL Cool J to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every a-ha 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
The Saints,
The Tremeloes,
The Doobie Brothers,
Schoolly D,
Absolute Body Control,
Bootsy Collins,
The Moody Blues,
The Busters,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Lightning Bolt,
Average White Band,
Brass Construction,
Radio Birdman,
World's Most,
The United States of America,
Steve Hackett,
10cc,
Outsiders,
Symarip,
Crooked Eye,
Scientists,
Eddi Front,
Amon Düül II,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sällskapet,
Yellowson,
Harmonia,
The Victims,
Glambeats Corp.,
Rites of Spring,
Liliput,
The Wake,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Pole,
Jerry's Kids,
Organ,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Eurythmics,
the Germs,
Loose Ends,
X-102,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Beau Brummels,
Underground Resistance,
Susan Cadogan,
Theoretical Girls,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Cluster,
Connie Case,
The Red Krayola,
Gastr Del Sol,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Dead C,
Fatback Band,
L. Decosne,
Laurel Aitken,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Modern Lovers,
Fad Gadget,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.