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 Bhutan and from Lagos.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the linndrum 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 K-Klass to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Toasters. All the underground hits.
All PIL tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boredoms record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 All-Stars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
June Days,
Lightning Bolt,
Rekid,
Derrick May,
Byron Stingily,
Unrelated Segments,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Doobie Brothers,
Bill Wells,
Sarah Menescal,
10cc,
Nils Olav,
Spoonie Gee,
Radiohead,
Tomorrow,
PIL,
Kayak,
Oneida,
Todd Rundgren,
Heaven 17,
Arab on Radar,
Kenny Larkin,
Lalann,
Amazonics,
Royal Trux,
Sonic Youth,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Gang Starr,
Television,
Jimmy McGriff,
Bobby Womack,
Lower 48,
Funky Four + One,
Donald Byrd,
The Mojo Men,
Aural Exciters,
Patti Smith,
Scientists,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
China Crisis,
Hoover,
Soulsonic Force,
Sun Ra,
The Slits,
Erasure,
kango's stein massive,
Danielle Patucci,
The Neon Judgement,
Bobby Sherman,
Mantronix,
Intrusion,
Chrome,
Gang of Four,
Qualms,
Godley & Creme,
Shuggie Otis,
The Fall,
Freddie Wadling,
Pierre Henry,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.