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 Benin and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the organ 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 Neil Young & Crazy Horse to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Groovy Waters. All the underground hits.
All Darondo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar 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 harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Freddie Wadling,
Little Man,
Kevin Saunderson,
Youth Brigade,
Alison Limerick,
The Skatalites,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Blues Magoos,
X-Ray Spex,
Goldenarms,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Crispian St. Peters,
Franke,
Babytalk,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Donald Byrd,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Brick,
The Gories,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lebanon Hanover,
Soft Cell,
Aloha Tigers,
The Walker Brothers,
Pagans,
Fear,
Malaria!,
Faust,
the Sonics,
The Dirtbombs,
Silicon Teens,
Crime,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Detroit Cobras,
Eurythmics,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bobby Womack,
The Misunderstood,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Man Parrish,
Toni Rubio,
The Pretty Things,
Danielle Patucci,
The Real Kids,
The Martian,
Delon & Dalcan,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Echospace,
ABBA,
Lightning Bolt,
The Fire Engines,
Scratch Acid,
Peter and Kerry,
Scott Walker,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Residents,
EPMD, EPMD, EPMD, EPMD.
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.