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 Paraguay and from Delhi.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 In Retrospect to the electroclash 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 Grandmaster Flash. All the underground hits.
All Rod Modell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thee Headcoats 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a rhodes 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 theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wasted Youth,
The Searchers,
June Days,
Lower 48,
Gang Starr,
Graham Central Station,
The Buckinghams,
Grey Daturas,
Eli Mardock,
The Pretty Things,
Rosa Yemen,
Sugar Minott,
Rekid,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Porter Ricks,
Zero Boys,
Kenny Larkin,
Sun City Girls,
Shoche,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Eden Ahbez,
Cluster,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Average White Band,
Joyce Sims,
The Fugs,
the Sonics,
The Knickerbockers,
Amon Düül II,
Toni Rubio,
John Lydon,
The Red Krayola,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Dawn Penn,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sex Pistols,
The Names,
CMW,
DNA,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Joy Division,
The Martian,
June of 44,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Moby Grape,
Neil Young,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Barracudas,
Japan,
Schoolly D,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Kinks,
Section 25,
Shuggie Otis,
Qualms,
The Dirtbombs,
Byron Stingily,
Pharoah Sanders,
Minnie Riperton,
Jesper Dahlback,
Quadrant,
The Standells,
The Men They Couldn't Hang, The Men They Couldn't Hang, The Men They Couldn't Hang, The Men They Couldn't Hang.
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.