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 Cuba and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the snare 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 Siglo XX to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Accadde A. All the underground hits.
All Pharoah Sanders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Groovy Waters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 an arpeggiator 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 güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Susan Cadogan,
Aloha Tigers,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Jesper Dahlback,
Monolake,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Roy Ayers,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Jandek,
Derrick Morgan,
Iggy Pop,
Unrelated Segments,
the Swans,
Mark Hollis,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Names,
Soft Machine,
China Crisis,
The Count Five,
Ralphi Rosario,
Boredoms,
Accadde A,
Nas,
The Dead C,
U.S. Maple,
UT,
Gil Scott Heron,
Magma,
Maurizio,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Seeds,
Rakim,
Nico,
Quantec,
Yaz,
Gregory Isaacs,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bootsy Collins,
Lebanon Hanover,
Fugazi,
The Black Dice,
Au Pairs,
Delta 5,
LL Cool J,
Wasted Youth,
Ornette Coleman,
Terry Callier,
Absolute Body Control,
Bill Wells,
Sarah Menescal,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Freddie Wadling,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Unwound,
Electric Prunes,
Crispian St. Peters,
Amazonics,
Tom Boy,
Tim Buckley,
Fear,
Arab on Radar,
The Saints, The Saints, The Saints, The Saints.
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.