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 Poland and from Beijing.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Portland.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Alton Ellis to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Nick Fraelich. All the underground hits.
All Arab on Radar tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes 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 synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Flag,
Arcadia,
Ultimate Spinach,
Jacob Miller,
Joy Division,
Alice Coltrane,
Los Fastidios,
Ice-T,
Ronnie Foster,
Deakin,
Lalann,
Index,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Smiths,
Lucky Dragons,
Black Moon,
The New Christs,
Lakeside,
Groovy Waters,
T.S.O.L.,
Pole,
Kerrie Biddell,
AZ,
the Bar-Kays,
Bronski Beat,
Brass Construction,
LL Cool J,
Arthur Verocai,
Ultra Naté,
Eden Ahbez,
Soulsonic Force,
Average White Band,
Yazoo,
Stockholm Monsters,
Malaria!,
Nico,
Amon Düül II,
Rakim,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Harpers Bizarre,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Slave,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
KRS-One,
The Black Dice,
The Buckinghams,
Glenn Branca,
48th St. Collective,
Thee Headcoats,
the Normal,
The Blues Magoos,
Maleditus Sound,
X-Ray Spex,
Peter & Gordon,
Excepter,
The Pretty Things,
Pere Ubu,
Avey Tare,
Angry Samoans,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Techniques,
Funky Four + One,
Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt.
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.