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 Egypt and from Accra.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Sister Nancy 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 The Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Skarface tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quando Quango record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 808 and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bang On A Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Grey Daturas,
Marcia Griffiths,
Pylon,
Clear Light,
Gang Green,
Roy Ayers,
Sonic Youth,
The Shadows of Knight,
Black Bananas,
The Angels of Light,
The Residents,
ABC,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Bootsy Collins,
Camberwell Now,
Joyce Sims,
the Swans,
Public Enemy,
Letta Mbulu,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Graham Central Station,
Electric Prunes,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Vogues,
Eden Ahbez,
Audionom,
Buzzcocks,
T.S.O.L.,
Bad Manners,
Arcadia,
Inner City,
Chris Corsano,
The Grass Roots,
Icehouse,
the Bar-Kays,
The Raincoats,
The Pretty Things,
Quantec,
Sam Rivers,
Chrome,
Rakim,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Victims,
Procol Harum,
Alice Coltrane,
the Fania All-Stars,
Surgeon,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Eric Dolphy,
Todd Terry,
Intrusion,
Ituana,
Young Marble Giants,
Blancmange,
Sound Behaviour,
The Star Department,
Hoover,
The Alarm Clocks,
Suicide,
This Heat, This Heat, This Heat, This Heat.
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.