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 Honduras and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
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 Lungfish to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Gun Club. All the underground hits.
All X-Ray Spex tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Louis and Bebe Barron record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a guitar 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 chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Christie,
Icehouse,
Todd Terry,
Bill Wells,
Blake Baxter,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The J.B.'s,
Funkadelic,
Organ,
ABBA,
The Moleskins,
Swans,
Index,
Bad Manners,
the Germs,
Schoolly D,
The Monks,
Tubeway Army,
Essential Logic,
Guru Guru,
Brick,
Swell Maps,
Rufus Thomas,
Joy Division,
Warsaw,
ABC,
Matthew Bourne,
F. McDonald,
Joey Negro,
Rosa Yemen,
Deadbeat,
Archie Shepp,
Amazonics,
Yusef Lateef,
Deepchord,
Man Parrish,
Mo-Dettes,
Young Marble Giants,
James White and The Blacks,
Blossom Toes,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Remains,
Ultravox,
the Swans,
Suicide,
X-101,
AZ,
The Cramps,
New Age Steppers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
the Human League,
A Certain Ratio,
Surgeon,
Mantronix,
Carl Craig,
Public Enemy,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Scrapy,
Lucky Dragons,
Kool Moe Dee,
Colin Newman,
Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction.
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.