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 Djibouti and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 808 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 Fad Gadget to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Fall. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Residents record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an oboe and a mellotron 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 oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kaleidoscope,
the Slits,
Nils Olav,
Cluster,
the Normal,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Doors,
EPMD,
Tom Boy,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Seeds,
Dual Sessions,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
A Certain Ratio,
Von Mondo,
Rekid,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
UT,
Leonard Cohen,
the Soft Cell,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Buckinghams,
Marmalade,
The Blackbyrds,
Rosa Yemen,
Subhumans,
the Fania All-Stars,
Motorama,
Neu!,
Animal Collective,
Public Enemy,
Newcleus,
The Fugs,
Flamin' Groovies,
Letta Mbulu,
AZ,
Derrick Morgan,
kango's stein massive,
Joe Smooth,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Nico,
Boz Scaggs,
Eurythmics,
The Move,
Lindisfarne,
Tomorrow,
Cheater Slicks,
Kerrie Biddell,
Stiv Bators,
L. Decosne,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Avey Tare,
The Blues Magoos,
Kevin Saunderson,
Tres Demented,
Interpol,
The Busters,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Swans,
The Smiths,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible.
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.