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 Nauru and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the oboe 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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to the grunge 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 Joyce Sims. All the underground hits.
All Alton Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro 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 mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
Sam Rivers,
Barrington Levy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Thompson Twins,
Loose Ends,
Davy DMX,
K-Klass,
F. McDonald,
Dual Sessions,
Joensuu 1685,
Circle Jerks,
Dennis Brown,
The American Breed,
New Age Steppers,
The Pop Group,
These Immortal Souls,
The Music Machine,
Bush Tetras,
Von Mondo,
Surgeon,
The Fire Engines,
Stockholm Monsters,
Aaron Thompson,
Angry Samoans,
Fatback Band,
Symarip,
The Detroit Cobras,
Joy Division,
Minnie Riperton,
Throbbing Gristle,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
B.T. Express,
Crime,
The Cure,
Camberwell Now,
Sound Behaviour,
Graham Central Station,
Wally Richardson,
John Foxx,
Flash Fearless,
Ultimate Spinach,
Aloha Tigers,
Eric Copeland,
The Modern Lovers,
The Misunderstood,
Peter and Kerry,
Blossom Toes,
R.M.O.,
Bad Manners,
Lindisfarne,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Offenders,
Unwound,
Marshall Jefferson,
Erasure,
Sugar Minott,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Skriet,
Inner City,
Whodini,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.