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 Yemen and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
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 Girls At Our Best! to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Blackbyrds. All the underground hits.
All T.S.O.L. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Zapp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a snare 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 an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tres Demented,
Pulsallama,
Sister Nancy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Khruangbin,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Radio Birdman,
Adolescents,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Johnny Clarke,
the Sonics,
Judy Mowatt,
Monks,
Terry Callier,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Donny Hathaway,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Cameo,
Gang Gang Dance,
Barclay James Harvest,
Mark Hollis,
Mad Mike,
David Axelrod,
Joyce Sims,
Crooked Eye,
Cheater Slicks,
Loose Ends,
The Slits,
Sight & Sound,
Lungfish,
Tubeway Army,
the Human League,
Chris & Cosey,
Basic Channel,
Camouflage,
Flash Fearless,
Tommy Roe,
The Martian,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sixth Finger,
X-Ray Spex,
Lindisfarne,
Das Ding,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Angry Samoans,
Barbara Tucker,
Brick,
Jeff Lynne,
Drive Like Jehu,
the Association,
The American Breed,
the Normal,
The United States of America,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Morten Harket,
The Divine Comedy,
Terrestrial Tones,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Neon Judgement,
The Move,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai.
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.