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 South Africa and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Dorothy Ashby to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Move. All the underground hits.
All The Smiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rahsaan Roland Kirk 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a sitar 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 sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Piero Umiliani,
The Shadows of Knight,
Robert Hood,
Magma,
Shuggie Otis,
Maleditus Sound,
The Young Rascals,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ossler,
Ultravox,
CMW,
The Motions,
Monks,
the Fania All-Stars,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
48th St. Collective,
T. Rex,
Can,
Technova,
Gil Scott Heron,
Delta 5,
The Blues Magoos,
The Fuzztones,
The Victims,
The Evens,
Niagra,
R.M.O.,
Andrew Hill,
The Tremeloes,
Yazoo,
Crispy Ambulance,
Wings,
Blancmange,
Nas,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Roger Hodgson,
Nils Olav,
The Raincoats,
Robert Görl,
Cheater Slicks,
Pagans,
Soft Cell,
The Smoke,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Al Stewart,
Freddie Wadling,
Visage,
Section 25,
Flipper,
Bill Wells,
JFA,
Vladislav Delay,
Dawn Penn,
the Sonics,
Zapp,
Subhumans,
Black Moon,
The Gap Band,
Jacques Brel,
Barbara Tucker,
Suburban Knight,
Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders.
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.