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 Madagascar and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan to the disco 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 Fugazi. All the underground hits.
All June of 44 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Supertramp 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator 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 güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skaos,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Arab on Radar,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Janne Schatter,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Associates,
The Misunderstood,
the Swans,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Skatalites,
Wolf Eyes,
Ornette Coleman,
Infiniti,
FM Einheit,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Crispian St. Peters,
The New Christs,
Idris Muhammad,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Sällskapet,
The Human League,
Letta Mbulu,
Quantec,
Pere Ubu,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Television Personalities,
the Slits,
This Heat,
Little Man,
UT,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Warsaw,
Bluetip,
Severed Heads,
Schoolly D,
Tim Buckley,
Agitation Free,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Accadde A,
EPMD,
KRS-One,
Camouflage,
Pantytec,
Curtis Mayfield,
Joy Division,
The Selecter,
Warren Ellis,
The Grass Roots,
Roger Hodgson,
Heaven 17,
Robert Wyatt,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Mary Jane Girls,
Desert Stars,
Minor Threat,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Detroit Cobras,
Sex Pistols,
Jimmy McGriff,
Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust, Saccharine Trust.
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.