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 Belarus and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Slick Rick 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 Rufus Thomas. All the underground hits.
All Los Fastidios tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare 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 clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Von Mondo,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Can,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Ultravox,
Visage,
Rufus Thomas,
These Immortal Souls,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Reagan Youth,
Scan 7,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sällskapet,
Monks,
Faust,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Godley & Creme,
Radio Birdman,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Warren Ellis,
Jesper Dahlback,
Kerrie Biddell,
Sun City Girls,
Dawn Penn,
Bill Near,
Smog,
The Zeros,
Sound Behaviour,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Lightning Bolt,
Aaron Thompson,
Massinfluence,
Little Man,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Magma,
Sonic Youth,
The Martian,
Cameo,
Erasure,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Raincoats,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Slits,
The Cure,
Excepter,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
LL Cool J,
James White and The Blacks,
The Fire Engines,
Mary Jane Girls,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Cowsills,
Man Parrish,
Chris Corsano,
Lou Christie,
John Cale,
The Music Machine,
T.S.O.L.,
Rites of Spring,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Pretty Things,
Josef K,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.