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 Madagascar and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Milan.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Terrestrial Tones to the crunk 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 Siouxsie and the Banshees. All the underground hits.
All Susan Cadogan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Interpol record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a 808 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 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Essential Logic,
The Gories,
Camouflage,
Radio Birdman,
Carl Craig,
Dorothy Ashby,
James White and The Blacks,
Stereo Dub,
Agitation Free,
Quadrant,
Joyce Sims,
Gil Scott Heron,
Mantronix,
D'Angelo,
Surgeon,
Shoche,
Patti Smith,
Bauhaus,
the Fania All-Stars,
X-101,
Lightning Bolt,
Scion,
Skaos,
Albert Ayler,
Erasure,
X-102,
Eric Copeland,
Maurizio,
The Blackbyrds,
New Age Steppers,
Yusef Lateef,
Cecil Taylor,
Juan Atkins,
The Fall,
China Crisis,
Heaven 17,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Steve Hackett,
Donald Byrd,
Black Pus,
Ultimate Spinach,
Roy Ayers,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sex Pistols,
David Axelrod,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Schoolly D,
Marine Girls,
Black Moon,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Anthony Braxton,
Organ,
Rekid,
The Flesh Eaters,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Subhumans,
Pantytec,
The Standells,
The Gap Band,
the Swans,
Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra.
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.