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 Israel and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Japan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boogie Down Productions 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a spring reverb 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 clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Thee Headcoats,
Second Layer,
Bill Near,
Eric B and Rakim,
Girls At Our Best!,
Pet Shop Boys,
Drexciya,
Wings,
Joe Finger,
Michelle Simonal,
Rosa Yemen,
The Moody Blues,
Metal Thangz,
Television Personalities,
Sonic Youth,
Rufus Thomas,
Moebius,
Jacob Miller,
Marcia Griffiths,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Excepter,
Animal Collective,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bauhaus,
Junior Murvin,
Arthur Verocai,
Letta Mbulu,
The Fire Engines,
Juan Atkins,
KRS-One,
Parry Music,
10cc,
Pylon,
The Offenders,
Agitation Free,
Simply Red,
Massinfluence,
the Normal,
The Motions,
John Holt,
Ituana,
Rod Modell,
The Busters,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Althea and Donna,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Robert Wyatt,
Groovy Waters,
the Swans,
The Invisible,
Scan 7,
Rites of Spring,
Desert Stars,
Janne Schatter,
Essential Logic,
Little Man,
Stiv Bators,
Piero Umiliani,
The Modern Lovers,
The Gun Club,
Ten City,
Young Marble Giants,
James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks.
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.