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 Bolivia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Howard Jones to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Detroit Cobras. All the underground hits.
All Joey Negro tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Larry & the Blue Notes 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 a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bang on a Can All-Stars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anthony Braxton,
Graham Central Station,
Electric Prunes,
Albert Ayler,
Archie Shepp,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Offenders,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Donny Hathaway,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Sex Pistols,
Ituana,
Mars,
Faraquet,
Prince Buster,
Sonny Sharrock,
Fugazi,
Soulsonic Force,
The Young Rascals,
Public Enemy,
Niagra,
Eric Copeland,
Susan Cadogan,
Silicon Teens,
The Mojo Men,
Lee Hazlewood,
Porter Ricks,
Hoover,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Beau Brummels,
Idris Muhammad,
Model 500,
The Modern Lovers,
Heaven 17,
The Dead C,
Ronnie Foster,
Mark Hollis,
Don Cherry,
Scott Walker,
The New Christs,
Scan 7,
Scrapy,
Index,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Junior Murvin,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Cramps,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Stooges,
Ornette Coleman,
Shoche,
Minny Pops,
Gang Gang Dance,
Deepchord,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Inner City,
Marc Almond,
EPMD,
Magma,
Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic.
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.