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 Swaziland and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the dance 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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Tres Demented tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kool G Rap & DJ Polo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ 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 güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kaleidoscope,
Joensuu 1685,
Sun City Girls,
The Electric Prunes,
Pulsallama,
Terrestrial Tones,
Jerry's Kids,
K-Klass,
Goldenarms,
Kerrie Biddell,
Yusef Lateef,
Minor Threat,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Urselle,
Susan Cadogan,
Crispian St. Peters,
Todd Rundgren,
Rekid,
Thee Headcoats,
Maleditus Sound,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Matthew Bourne,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Joey Negro,
Erasure,
Eden Ahbez,
Anthony Braxton,
AZ,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Jeff Mills,
Eddi Front,
Cecil Taylor,
Joy Division,
The Index,
Can,
The Golliwogs,
Dark Day,
Clear Light,
Radiopuhelimet,
kango's stein massive,
Donny Hathaway,
Harmonia,
Bill Near,
Marcia Griffiths,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Stiv Bators,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Surgeon,
The Fortunes,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Eurythmics,
China Crisis,
The Toasters,
Black Pus,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gang of Four,
Derrick Morgan,
Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye.
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.