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 Angola and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in 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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Bang On A Can to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Ice-T. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Electric Prunes,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Golliwogs,
Gichy Dan,
The Techniques,
The Human League,
Tomorrow,
Theoretical Girls,
Camouflage,
Tommy Roe,
Shuggie Otis,
Johnny Clarke,
Minnie Riperton,
cv313,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Monolake,
Jawbox,
The Move,
Magazine,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Index,
Kerrie Biddell,
Public Enemy,
A Certain Ratio,
Intrusion,
The Velvet Underground,
The Standells,
Sound Behaviour,
The Star Department,
Guru Guru,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
David Bowie,
Bootsy Collins,
John Foxx,
Schoolly D,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Pierre Henry,
This Heat,
Wally Richardson,
Robert Hood,
Freddie Wadling,
Essential Logic,
The Count Five,
Television Personalities,
Mr. Review,
Absolute Body Control,
Todd Terry,
the Normal,
Sarah Menescal,
Isaac Hayes,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Moleskins,
Angry Samoans,
Marcia Griffiths,
Model 500,
Liliput,
Sonic Youth,
Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman.
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.