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 Paraguay and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 The New Christs to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Modern Lovers. All the underground hits.
All The Raincoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every OOIOO record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Monochrome Set,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Seeds,
The Slits,
Todd Rundgren,
Tom Boy,
DNA,
Amazonics,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Electric Prunes,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Index,
Unrelated Segments,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Isaac Hayes,
Skriet,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
UT,
Subhumans,
Mantronix,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Lakeside,
Camouflage,
The Martian,
Barrington Levy,
The Mummies,
Eric Dolphy,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Pierre Henry,
Iggy Pop,
Interpol,
Cymande,
Lungfish,
Vainqueur,
K-Klass,
Nick Fraelich,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
T.S.O.L.,
X-102,
Terry Callier,
Blancmange,
Eurythmics,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Amon Düül II,
Johnny Osbourne,
Jeff Mills,
Darondo,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Dave Clark Five,
Outsiders,
Minutemen,
Schoolly D,
The Dirtbombs,
The Doobie Brothers,
Infiniti,
the Soft Cell,
Barclay James Harvest,
Von Mondo,
Pagans,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Standells,
Susan Cadogan,
The Victims, The Victims, The Victims, The Victims.
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.