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 Belarus and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the organ 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 Yaz to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 ABC. All the underground hits.
All The Slackers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ponytail record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord 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 rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fat Boys,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Mary Jane Girls,
Eden Ahbez,
Dark Day,
Al Stewart,
The Durutti Column,
Easy Going,
Y Pants,
Wasted Youth,
Maurizio,
Saccharine Trust,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Electric Prunes,
Television,
Index,
Terrestrial Tones,
Country Teasers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Hoover,
T. Rex,
Johnny Clarke,
EPMD,
Idris Muhammad,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fluxion,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Robert Hood,
Crispy Ambulance,
Lindisfarne,
Underground Resistance,
Minutemen,
DJ Sneak,
Stetsasonic,
Black Flag,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Bobby Byrd,
Sex Pistols,
Amon Düül II,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Sun City Girls,
The Human League,
Dave Gahan,
Darondo,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Barclay James Harvest,
kango's stein massive,
Soft Cell,
Monks,
The Seeds,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Jeff Mills,
Scratch Acid,
The Slackers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Danielle Patucci,
Flash Fearless,
Organ,
Black Pus,
Popol Vuh,
The Monks,
Bluetip,
The Gories,
The Wake, The Wake, The Wake, The Wake.
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.