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 Philippines and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
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 Matthew Bourne to the dance 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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All LL Cool J tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minny Pops record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron 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 spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Pere Ubu,
Au Pairs,
Supertramp,
Ronan,
Crispy Ambulance,
David Axelrod,
Scan 7,
Rotary Connection,
Susan Cadogan,
Bang On A Can,
Marvin Gaye,
Underground Resistance,
The Birthday Party,
The Velvet Underground,
Sarah Menescal,
Amon Düül II,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Lalo Schifrin,
Terry Callier,
Maleditus Sound,
The Fortunes,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Bad Manners,
Swans,
Angry Samoans,
Matthew Halsall,
The Sound,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Agent Orange,
The Sonics,
The Remains,
Tomorrow,
Stiv Bators,
Jeru the Damaja,
the Soft Cell,
Cecil Taylor,
Ice-T,
Echospace,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Barclay James Harvest,
Country Teasers,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bob Dylan,
the Human League,
Warsaw,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Intrusion,
The Kinks,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Sällskapet,
The Beau Brummels,
The Five Americans,
Harmonia,
The Red Krayola,
Joensuu 1685,
Unwound,
Robert Wyatt,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Bizarre Inc.,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.