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 Rwanda and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the 808 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 Mandrill to the punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Jesper Dahlback. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wasted Youth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 an organ and a mellotron 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 oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Scrapy,
Fatback Band,
Henry Cow,
Alton Ellis,
Whodini,
Jandek,
Sun Ra,
The Toasters,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Make Up,
Loose Ends,
The Zeros,
Man Parrish,
8 Eyed Spy,
Fugazi,
Quadrant,
The Alarm Clocks,
Negative Approach,
The Invisible,
Delon & Dalcan,
Eli Mardock,
Outsiders,
Icehouse,
Franke,
Erasure,
Excepter,
Bush Tetras,
Idris Muhammad,
Hot Snakes,
Public Enemy,
La Düsseldorf,
The Angels of Light,
Johnny Clarke,
Albert Ayler,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lou Reed,
The Young Rascals,
Ornette Coleman,
Easy Going,
Oneida,
Stiv Bators,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Subhumans,
ABC,
Underground Resistance,
Depeche Mode,
Fat Boys,
Wings,
James White and The Blacks,
Amon Düül II,
MDC,
Gerry Rafferty,
Sexual Harrassment,
Neil Young,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Harpers Bizarre,
Country Teasers,
In Retrospect,
Sight & Sound,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs, Notorious Big And Bone Thugs.
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.