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 New York.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 UT to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Lightning Bolt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Mighty Diamonds record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum 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 rhodes and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Freddie Wadling,
Altered Images,
Marc Almond,
Steve Hackett,
Soft Machine,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Beau Brummels,
The Dave Clark Five,
the Association,
Anakelly,
Minutemen,
Whodini,
Alton Ellis,
Laurel Aitken,
Man Eating Sloth,
Public Enemy,
The Pretty Things,
New York Dolls,
Grey Daturas,
Aural Exciters,
Technova,
Stockholm Monsters,
Pere Ubu,
Hoover,
The Invisible,
The Searchers,
Gerry Rafferty,
Absolute Body Control,
Sexual Harrassment,
Minor Threat,
Chris & Cosey,
The Black Dice,
The Gap Band,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Slave,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Colin Newman,
Pole,
Mad Mike,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
cv313,
Moss Icon,
Danielle Patucci,
Livin' Joy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Lakeside,
Ralphi Rosario,
Cecil Taylor,
Buzzcocks,
Jawbox,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Black Bananas,
Youth Brigade,
June of 44,
Tubeway Army,
Unrelated Segments,
Arcadia,
Ohio Players,
Crispian St. Peters,
Scott Walker,
Oblivians,
Thee Headcoats,
Eric Dolphy,
The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators.
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.