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 Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Henry Cow to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Susan Cadogan. All the underground hits.
All Pere Ubu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every UT 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb 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 chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mummies,
Tubeway Army,
Black Pus,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sex Pistols,
Davy DMX,
Gang Green,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
CMW,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Dorothy Ashby,
Man Parrish,
Joe Smooth,
The Modern Lovers,
Judy Mowatt,
A Certain Ratio,
Idris Muhammad,
The Fugs,
Sparks,
Patti Smith,
Fela Kuti,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Raincoats,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Slits,
Half Japanese,
Erasure,
The Mojo Men,
Groovy Waters,
Bobby Byrd,
Buzzcocks,
The Seeds,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Joe Finger,
Marvin Gaye,
ABC,
Fugazi,
Electric Light Orchestra,
H. Thieme,
Echospace,
Minnie Riperton,
Albert Ayler,
Q and Not U,
Hardrive,
The Dirtbombs,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David Axelrod,
E-Dancer,
The Leaves,
Yusef Lateef,
June Days,
Intrusion,
The Star Department,
The Five Americans,
Thee Headcoats,
Unrelated Segments,
Minutemen,
Smog,
James White and The Blacks,
Mantronix,
Cybotron,
The Trojans, The Trojans, The Trojans, The Trojans.
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.