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 Namibia and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Flipper 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 The Standells. All the underground hits.
All Motorama tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flamin' Groovies 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar 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 güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Terrestrial Tones,
Archie Shepp,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Deadbeat,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Red Krayola,
Bob Dylan,
Bang On A Can,
Smog,
Hot Snakes,
The Real Kids,
Skaos,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Little Man,
Man Eating Sloth,
James White and The Blacks,
New Order,
Icehouse,
Nico,
David Axelrod,
The Associates,
Tres Demented,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Shadows of Knight,
Quadrant,
Magma,
Fugazi,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Monolake,
8 Eyed Spy,
Gil Scott Heron,
Second Layer,
Sandy B,
The Grass Roots,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Frankie Knuckles,
CMW,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Liliput,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Electric Prunes,
JFA,
David McCallum,
Swell Maps,
Unwound,
Slick Rick,
The Human League,
Skriet,
Minny Pops,
La Düsseldorf,
Underground Resistance,
Sugar Minott,
World's Most,
Porter Ricks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Stooges,
Rod Modell,
Leonard Cohen,
Bobby Womack,
Soft Machine,
Make Up, Make Up, Make Up, Make Up.
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.