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 Maldives and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The Cramps to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Lou Reed & John Cale. All the underground hits.
All Massinfluence tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet 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 spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Man Parrish,
a-ha,
The Pretty Things,
Lower 48,
Half Japanese,
The Fire Engines,
Minnie Riperton,
Tommy Roe,
Quantec,
Procol Harum,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Gap Band,
Don Cherry,
Eden Ahbez,
Scan 7,
Wolf Eyes,
Colin Newman,
the Association,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Ten City,
Eric Dolphy,
Q65,
Schoolly D,
Accadde A,
Crispian St. Peters,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Ultimate Spinach,
Underground Resistance,
Reagan Youth,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Grauzone,
X-Ray Spex,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ponytail,
the Normal,
The Music Machine,
Pantytec,
Jeff Mills,
The Red Krayola,
Dual Sessions,
the Sonics,
Sight & Sound,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Gun Club,
Pole,
The Monks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Moby Grape,
Soul Sonic Force,
Marvin Gaye,
Siglo XX,
Eli Mardock,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Charles Mingus,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Agent Orange,
Guru Guru,
Gabor Szabo,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Depeche Mode,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Tremeloes,
Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger.
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.