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 South Sudan and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Janne Schatter to the disco 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 China Crisis. All the underground hits.
All The Monochrome Set tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Little Man 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar 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 snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Basic Channel,
Cameo,
Gregory Isaacs,
T.S.O.L.,
Sam Rivers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Radiohead,
John Lydon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ken Boothe,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Crooked Eye,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Model 500,
The Sonics,
Kenny Larkin,
Ronnie Foster,
Lee Hazlewood,
Marcia Griffiths,
Con Funk Shun,
Duran Duran,
Panda Bear,
Neil Young,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sarah Menescal,
Flash Fearless,
Lakeside,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Residents,
Rapeman,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Tom Boy,
Lungfish,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Fad Gadget,
Roy Ayers,
Tommy Roe,
Gong,
Circle Jerks,
Negative Approach,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
New Order,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Searchers,
Ludus,
Babytalk,
the Germs,
Tropical Tobacco,
Sonny Sharrock,
Josef K,
Y Pants,
U.S. Maple,
The J.B.'s,
Metal Thangz,
Rites of Spring,
Delon & Dalcan,
Nas,
Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators.
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.