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 Mozambique and from Lyon.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Rosa Yemen to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Gichy Dan. All the underground hits.
All Country Teasers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vladislav Delay record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 a synthesizer and an arpeggiator 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 guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Youth Brigade,
Minnie Riperton,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Iggy Pop,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Vogues,
The Buckinghams,
Charles Mingus,
a-ha,
Tropical Tobacco,
Gichy Dan,
Sandy B,
Marcia Griffiths,
Altered Images,
The Kinks,
Bobby Womack,
Sugar Minott,
Warren Ellis,
Y Pants,
Scott Walker,
The Doobie Brothers,
X-Ray Spex,
Rosa Yemen,
The Cramps,
Moebius,
Country Teasers,
The Pretty Things,
Soulsonic Force,
Nico,
Theoretical Girls,
L. Decosne,
The Electric Prunes,
Pulsallama,
Pantytec,
Rod Modell,
Zero Boys,
Goldenarms,
The Raincoats,
Stiv Bators,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Crispian St. Peters,
Marine Girls,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Cure,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Second Layer,
Wally Richardson,
Cheater Slicks,
Sexual Harrassment,
Frankie Knuckles,
Babytalk,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Young Marble Giants,
Yazoo,
Kurtis Blow,
Radiohead,
Donny Hathaway,
T. Rex,
Ronan,
Neil Young,
Wings,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.