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 Guyana and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic 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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 New York Dolls. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tubeway Army record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a marimba 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 harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Electric Prunes,
Heaven 17,
The Skatalites,
Chris & Cosey,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Japan,
Joey Negro,
Reagan Youth,
Youth Brigade,
Barclay James Harvest,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Lalann,
Subhumans,
Malaria!,
The Fugs,
Liliput,
Avey Tare,
Davy DMX,
Suicide,
The Evens,
Symarip,
The Sonics,
Nik Kershaw,
Zero Boys,
Pussy Galore,
PIL,
The Gap Band,
Alice Coltrane,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Procol Harum,
Jeff Mills,
New Age Steppers,
Flash Fearless,
Pierre Henry,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Unrelated Segments,
Black Pus,
Pylon,
Ronan,
Gang Starr,
Soulsonic Force,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Skaos,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gang Green,
Max Romeo,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Loose Ends,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Vladislav Delay,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sound Behaviour,
Royal Trux,
Crispy Ambulance,
Fluxion,
Robert Wyatt,
Cecil Taylor,
Ludus,
Audionom, Audionom, Audionom, Audionom.
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.