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 Lebanon and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Gang Gang Dance to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Lizzy Mercier Descloux. All the underground hits.
All Mo-Dettes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stetsasonic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet 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 snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
Isaac Hayes,
Todd Rundgren,
Model 500,
Joe Finger,
Au Pairs,
Johnny Osbourne,
Glenn Branca,
Jeff Mills,
Donny Hathaway,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Cecil Taylor,
The Dead C,
Youth Brigade,
The Cramps,
Skarface,
The Index,
Goldenarms,
The Invisible,
Tears for Fears,
The Toasters,
Radiopuhelimet,
Skriet,
Scratch Acid,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Sound Behaviour,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Beau Brummels,
Index,
cv313,
The Skatalites,
Pere Ubu,
Half Japanese,
Lalo Schifrin,
Eve St. Jones,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Malaria!,
Gang of Four,
The Move,
Pantaleimon,
Sonic Youth,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Eli Mardock,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Inner City,
Amon Düül II,
The Buckinghams,
Man Parrish,
Public Enemy,
Alison Limerick,
Mars,
Hot Snakes,
Marine Girls,
The Wake,
Magma,
Laurel Aitken,
Dennis Brown,
Jerry's Kids,
Echospace,
Unwound,
Al Stewart,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Iggy Pop,
Cameo, Cameo, Cameo, Cameo.
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.