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 Jamaica and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Roger Hodgson to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs. All the underground hits.
All Mandrill tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Görl record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a synthesizer 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 guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
The Velvet Underground,
Ornette Coleman,
ABC,
Al Stewart,
Grauzone,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Cluster,
Zapp,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Cameo,
Reagan Youth,
Basic Channel,
Yazoo,
Monolake,
the Swans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Gabor Szabo,
Dead Boys,
Mad Mike,
Johnny Clarke,
Dawn Penn,
Peter and Kerry,
The Blues Magoos,
Charles Mingus,
Althea and Donna,
Banda Bassotti,
Eli Mardock,
Lalann,
Audionom,
Saccharine Trust,
Traffic Nightmare,
Black Pus,
Donny Hathaway,
Simply Red,
The Dead C,
Mo-Dettes,
Fatback Band,
H. Thieme,
Bobby Sherman,
Davy DMX,
Metal Thangz,
The Smiths,
Todd Terry,
John Coltrane,
Stockholm Monsters,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Raincoats,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Fire Engines,
Sugar Minott,
The Happenings,
Wasted Youth,
The Gun Club,
Pagans,
The Vogues,
Anakelly,
John Holt,
David Axelrod,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day.
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.