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 Sierra Leone and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 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 Kool Moe Dee to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Rhythm & Sound. All the underground hits.
All Y Pants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thompson Twins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a mellotron and an oboe 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 oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
Funkadelic,
Depeche Mode,
Rufus Thomas,
The Fortunes,
The Associates,
Radiopuhelimet,
Gichy Dan,
Alice Coltrane,
Moby Grape,
Barbara Tucker,
Janne Schatter,
Charles Mingus,
The Happenings,
Lindisfarne,
Ludus,
MC5,
John Cale,
Rites of Spring,
Circle Jerks,
Gong,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Angry Samoans,
Glambeats Corp.,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Boogie Down Productions,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Walker Brothers,
Big Daddy Kane,
the Association,
Neu!,
Tubeway Army,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Vogues,
Albert Ayler,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Smog,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Fuzztones,
Donny Hathaway,
Al Stewart,
Stiv Bators,
Leonard Cohen,
Au Pairs,
R.M.O.,
the Fania All-Stars,
Steve Hackett,
Maurizio,
The Index,
Pussy Galore,
Alphaville,
Minor Threat,
Negative Approach,
Roy Ayers,
Warsaw,
The Misunderstood,
Ice-T,
OOIOO,
The Blackbyrds,
The Victims,
Maleditus Sound, Maleditus Sound, Maleditus Sound, Maleditus Sound.
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.