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 Haiti and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 spring reverb 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 LL Cool J to the jazz 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 the Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Sällskapet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heaven 17 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an arpeggiator 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 a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moss Icon,
Scratch Acid,
Brothers Johnson,
DJ Sneak,
Sonny Sharrock,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Traffic Nightmare,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mr. Review,
Crooked Eye,
FM Einheit,
Wolf Eyes,
These Immortal Souls,
The Fuzztones,
Clear Light,
Smog,
Laurel Aitken,
X-Ray Spex,
Gabor Szabo,
The Golliwogs,
Wally Richardson,
The Move,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sandy B,
Television Personalities,
Hashim,
ABBA,
Kas Product,
Excepter,
The Monochrome Set,
the Slits,
the Germs,
EPMD,
Ultravox,
Banda Bassotti,
Nico,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Robert Hood,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Funky Four + One,
UT,
Soft Machine,
David Bowie,
Mad Mike,
David McCallum,
The Stooges,
Isaac Hayes,
Lightning Bolt,
Bizarre Inc.,
Hasil Adkins,
Bang On A Can,
Wasted Youth,
Urselle,
Cluster,
The Vogues,
Kool Moe Dee,
Ohio Players,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Barracudas,
Procol Harum, Procol Harum, Procol Harum, Procol Harum.
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.