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 Madagascar and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 Accra and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Y Pants to the dance 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 The Five Americans. All the underground hits.
All Lebanon Hanover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro 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 guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lungfish,
Jeff Mills,
Thompson Twins,
Jerry's Kids,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Tom Boy,
Ituana,
Khruangbin,
John Coltrane,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kerri Chandler,
Matthew Bourne,
Talk Talk,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Drive Like Jehu,
Eden Ahbez,
DJ Style,
Hoover,
The Blackbyrds,
The Moleskins,
Masters at Work,
Country Joe & The Fish,
June Days,
Rekid,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Moebius,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Fugs,
The Star Department,
The Raincoats,
Kenny Larkin,
Maleditus Sound,
Lou Christie,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Fortunes,
Funkadelic,
Motorama,
Morten Harket,
R.M.O.,
Susan Cadogan,
Fatback Band,
Pulsallama,
Donny Hathaway,
Vainqueur,
Sight & Sound,
Easy Going,
Whodini,
Nick Fraelich,
Sexual Harrassment,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Model 500,
Rotary Connection,
Laurel Aitken,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Golliwogs,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sonic Youth,
Glambeats Corp.,
Franke, Franke, Franke, Franke.
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.