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 Australia and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Ajijia Myrayebe to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Organ. All the underground hits.
All Dawn Penn tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Association record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro 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 linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Youth Brigade,
Deakin,
Surgeon,
Scan 7,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Cramps,
Panda Bear,
Lyres,
Laurel Aitken,
The Standells,
Simply Red,
X-101,
Eric Dolphy,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Basic Channel,
Todd Rundgren,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Velvet Underground,
Jeru the Damaja,
Ossler,
Sun City Girls,
Nation of Ulysses,
Rakim,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Reagan Youth,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
David McCallum,
Amon Düül II,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Pylon,
Agitation Free,
Ultra Naté,
Ten City,
Visage,
Suicide,
Agent Orange,
R.M.O.,
Shuggie Otis,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Motions,
Rufus Thomas,
Yellowson,
Dual Sessions,
The Detroit Cobras,
F. McDonald,
Subhumans,
These Immortal Souls,
The Count Five,
Black Pus,
The Buckinghams,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
the Sonics,
Q65,
Bill Wells,
Johnny Osbourne,
the Germs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators.
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.