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 Tuvalu and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Andrew Hill to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Tres Demented tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Audionom 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 a harpsichord and a theremin 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 mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Adolescents,
X-102,
Dual Sessions,
Main Source,
John Cale,
Crispian St. Peters,
Godley & Creme,
Essential Logic,
The Five Americans,
Bizarre Inc.,
Faust,
Erykah Badu,
Nico,
Underground Resistance,
Television,
Ten City,
Steve Hackett,
Jandek,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Avey Tare,
Tomorrow,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Masters at Work,
Dead Boys,
John Foxx,
Agent Orange,
The Skatalites,
Inner City,
The Gap Band,
Wally Richardson,
R.M.O.,
Kerrie Biddell,
Altered Images,
The Monochrome Set,
Quantec,
Scan 7,
Frankie Knuckles,
Nation of Ulysses,
Visage,
Surgeon,
Skaos,
Boogie Down Productions,
Minutemen,
Lou Reed,
Warren Ellis,
Wire,
This Heat,
June of 44,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Dark Day,
Idris Muhammad,
Buzzcocks,
Gil Scott Heron,
Electric Prunes,
Hashim,
Leonard Cohen,
Pantaleimon,
Carl Craig,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
the Sonics,
Althea and Donna,
Kevin Saunderson,
Flipper, Flipper, Flipper, Flipper.
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.