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 Netherlands and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Heaven 17 to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Electric Light Orchestra,
Essential Logic,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Erykah Badu,
Peter & Gordon,
Bizarre Inc.,
Tom Boy,
Dawn Penn,
Stereo Dub,
Bauhaus,
Magma,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Mark Hollis,
Nation of Ulysses,
Grauzone,
Gang Gang Dance,
Crash Course in Science,
Marshall Jefferson,
Banda Bassotti,
H. Thieme,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Fugs,
Traffic Nightmare,
Cecil Taylor,
Black Moon,
Reagan Youth,
The Mojo Men,
Jawbox,
Yazoo,
Nik Kershaw,
Alphaville,
E-Dancer,
The Detroit Cobras,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Brand Nubian,
kango's stein massive,
John Coltrane,
Stetsasonic,
Delta 5,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Television Personalities,
The Kinks,
The Happenings,
The Slackers,
Roxette,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Unrelated Segments,
JFA,
Amazonics,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Cal Tjader,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Jeru the Damaja,
Gang Starr,
Barry Ungar,
Ponytail,
Lalann,
Lalo Schifrin,
Can,
Excepter,
The Associates,
Lindisfarne,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.