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 Ecuador and from Winnipeg.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
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 Eli Mardock to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All Tim Buckley tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacob Miller record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar 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 linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harpers Bizarre,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Sound,
the Association,
The Walker Brothers,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Ituana,
Mission of Burma,
Nik Kershaw,
Urselle,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Darondo,
Robert Wyatt,
a-ha,
Colin Newman,
The Fire Engines,
Girls At Our Best!,
Pantytec,
David McCallum,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
This Heat,
The Gladiators,
Pagans,
DJ Style,
Brothers Johnson,
Derrick Morgan,
Chris & Cosey,
The United States of America,
Gang of Four,
Sex Pistols,
10cc,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Fear,
Nick Fraelich,
The Neon Judgement,
New Order,
Letta Mbulu,
David Axelrod,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Junior Murvin,
Sarah Menescal,
Robert Hood,
Fatback Band,
8 Eyed Spy,
EPMD,
John Holt,
The Skatalites,
Rotary Connection,
Althea and Donna,
Symarip,
Dark Day,
The Move,
Lindisfarne,
Bobby Byrd,
Masters at Work,
Matthew Bourne,
Faraquet,
Minutemen,
B.T. Express,
Rites of Spring,
Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh, Popol Vuh.
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.