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 Honduras and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the mellotron 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 The Real Kids to the funk 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 Intrusion. All the underground hits.
All Technova tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Men They Couldn't Hang 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe 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 arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobbi Humphrey,
New York Dolls,
Procol Harum,
The Seeds,
Terrestrial Tones,
Spoonie Gee,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Donald Byrd,
Chris Corsano,
Section 25,
Average White Band,
Jawbox,
F. McDonald,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Last Poets,
Ossler,
Khruangbin,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Monks,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Faust,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Moss Icon,
Soft Cell,
Bush Tetras,
Mad Mike,
Public Image Ltd.,
Todd Rundgren,
Excepter,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Nas,
Theoretical Girls,
Quantec,
Dorothy Ashby,
James White and The Blacks,
Letta Mbulu,
Easy Going,
Reuben Wilson,
Blancmange,
Electric Prunes,
Bootsy Collins,
Amon Düül II,
The Slits,
JFA,
Joyce Sims,
The Misunderstood,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Martian,
The New Christs,
Sonic Youth,
Monks,
Brothers Johnson,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Moby Grape,
Stetsasonic,
Motorama,
Sonny Sharrock,
Minor Threat, Minor Threat, Minor Threat, Minor Threat.
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.