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 Luxembourg and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Los Fastidios to the grunge 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 Durutti Column. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ken Boothe 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bang On A Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Saccharine Trust,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Marc Almond,
Ornette Coleman,
Jandek,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Grass Roots,
The Buckinghams,
Theoretical Girls,
Nirvana,
Gichy Dan,
Cecil Taylor,
Underground Resistance,
Grey Daturas,
Wally Richardson,
Jeff Mills,
Popol Vuh,
The Moody Blues,
Sandy B,
Michelle Simonal,
The Red Krayola,
David Axelrod,
Depeche Mode,
Blossom Toes,
Shoche,
The Monochrome Set,
Urselle,
Aaron Thompson,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Knickerbockers,
Eric B and Rakim,
John Holt,
Bauhaus,
Harmonia,
Visage,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
the Bar-Kays,
Quando Quango,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Glambeats Corp.,
Alphaville,
the Association,
Cymande,
10cc,
Pussy Galore,
Faust,
Aural Exciters,
Bluetip,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Monks,
Sun Ra,
Suicide,
Avey Tare,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Dead Boys,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Minny Pops,
Public Image Ltd.,
Pere Ubu,
Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt.
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.