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 Hong Kong.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Tim Buckley to the grime 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 Black Pus. All the underground hits.
All Shoche tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suicide record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Howard Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Pus,
The Gories,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The United States of America,
Glambeats Corp.,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Robert Hood,
The Dave Clark Five,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Music Machine,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Gong,
One Last Wish,
Cluster,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Peter & Gordon,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Second Layer,
Television Personalities,
Hasil Adkins,
These Immortal Souls,
The Modern Lovers,
Kenny Larkin,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Television,
Infiniti,
Bobby Sherman,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Curtis Mayfield,
Ten City,
Ken Boothe,
Drexciya,
Arab on Radar,
The Seeds,
the Normal,
Gang Green,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Harmonia,
Man Parrish,
Bill Wells,
Essential Logic,
The Index,
Minnie Riperton,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Audionom,
China Crisis,
Gang Starr,
Fela Kuti,
LL Cool J,
Eric Copeland,
Warsaw,
Massinfluence,
The Skatalites,
The Black Dice,
Stiv Bators,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Country Teasers,
Moby Grape,
Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix.
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.