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 the UAE and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
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 Marcia Griffiths to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Eve St. Jones. All the underground hits.
All The Chocolate Watch Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator 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 snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Average White Band,
The Associates,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Excepter,
Bobby Sherman,
Marc Almond,
The Mojo Men,
Reagan Youth,
Donny Hathaway,
Banda Bassotti,
Matthew Bourne,
The Velvet Underground,
In Retrospect,
Sam Rivers,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Cowsills,
The Motions,
Lou Christie,
The Slackers,
Anthony Braxton,
Sugar Minott,
Pantytec,
The Barracudas,
Connie Case,
Severed Heads,
The Golliwogs,
Sonic Youth,
Boogie Down Productions,
Agent Orange,
The Stooges,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Kevin Saunderson,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Sarah Menescal,
Delon & Dalcan,
Neu!,
Amon Düül II,
U.S. Maple,
PIL,
Technova,
Scratch Acid,
Accadde A,
Fatback Band,
Surgeon,
Lyres,
Basic Channel,
Hasil Adkins,
Johnny Clarke,
James White and The Blacks,
Nas,
Barry Ungar,
The Victims,
Soul II Soul,
Echospace,
Lou Reed,
Spandau Ballet,
Organ,
Theoretical Girls,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Neil Young,
The Searchers,
Amon Düül,
Avey Tare, Avey Tare, Avey Tare, Avey Tare.
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.