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 Dominica and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 clarinet 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 Hasil Adkins to the electroclash 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 Bill Wells. All the underground hits.
All Joensuu 1685 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rahsaan Roland Kirk record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Donny Hathaway record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Joe Smooth,
Kayak,
the Sonics,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Robert Wyatt,
Unrelated Segments,
Television,
Mandrill,
The Buckinghams,
Warsaw,
Roxette,
Marine Girls,
Quadrant,
June of 44,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Alice Coltrane,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Skaos,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
JFA,
Glambeats Corp.,
Big Daddy Kane,
Tom Boy,
June Days,
Make Up,
Kerri Chandler,
Roger Hodgson,
X-101,
Supertramp,
Dawn Penn,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Quantec,
Half Japanese,
The Star Department,
R.M.O.,
Nirvana,
Charles Mingus,
Graham Central Station,
Idris Muhammad,
DJ Sneak,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Victims,
Ituana,
Altered Images,
Bauhaus,
Negative Approach,
Colin Newman,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Gong,
The Raincoats,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Magazine,
Josef K,
Das Ding,
Saccharine Trust,
The Count Five,
Groovy Waters,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Gang Green,
The Blackbyrds,
The Fall, The Fall, The Fall, The Fall.
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.