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 Malawi and from Paris.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Invisible to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Masters at Work. All the underground hits.
All Bang On A Can tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Foxx 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer 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 guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Maurizio,
Bluetip,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Easy Going,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Masters at Work,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Pantytec,
Scott Walker,
Traffic Nightmare,
Sam Rivers,
Lucky Dragons,
Make Up,
Simply Red,
Surgeon,
Guru Guru,
Derrick Morgan,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Walker Brothers,
The Monks,
The Doobie Brothers,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Charles Mingus,
The Standells,
Reagan Youth,
Eve St. Jones,
Anthony Braxton,
John Lydon,
Fela Kuti,
The Blackbyrds,
Eric Copeland,
Crime,
Severed Heads,
Eric Dolphy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Grey Daturas,
Liliput,
Rekid,
ABC,
Mark Hollis,
Audionom,
Bauhaus,
The Golliwogs,
Black Flag,
Joy Division,
The Last Poets,
Brick,
Sparks,
X-102,
Camouflage,
Warsaw,
Wire,
Accadde A,
Sun City Girls,
Fugazi,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Tropical Tobacco,
Gerry Rafferty,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cymande,
Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army.
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.