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 Gabon and from Milan.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Shoche to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Cowsills. All the underground hits.
All Joensuu 1685 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Men They Couldn't Hang record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Freddie Wadling,
The Skatalites,
Saccharine Trust,
A Certain Ratio,
Gichy Dan,
The Kinks,
Ice-T,
Clear Light,
Isaac Hayes,
Blancmange,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Wolf Eyes,
Quantec,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Goldenarms,
Electric Prunes,
Neil Young,
the Sonics,
The Gladiators,
The Saints,
Ronan,
The Standells,
James White and The Blacks,
Mo-Dettes,
Das Ding,
ABC,
Girls At Our Best!,
Rekid,
the Association,
Marc Almond,
Donald Byrd,
Derrick Morgan,
The Offenders,
Monks,
Sixth Finger,
Hashim,
Yellowson,
The American Breed,
Oblivians,
Faust,
the Fania All-Stars,
Second Layer,
New York Dolls,
Subhumans,
Underground Resistance,
Flipper,
The Grass Roots,
Alton Ellis,
Ossler,
Qualms,
This Heat,
Tres Demented,
The New Christs,
Angry Samoans,
MC5,
Lyres,
the Bar-Kays,
The Victims,
Hoover,
Ultra Naté,
Royal Trux,
The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks.
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.