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 the UAE and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 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 Motorama to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 ABC. All the underground hits.
All The Last Poets tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siglo XX 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a clarinet 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 oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
The Pretty Things,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Brand Nubian,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Alton Ellis,
Don Cherry,
Sixth Finger,
Throbbing Gristle,
Surgeon,
Sugar Minott,
Andrew Hill,
Absolute Body Control,
Roy Ayers,
Patti Smith,
The Star Department,
Smog,
F. McDonald,
Bad Manners,
The Litter,
Maurizio,
The Fortunes,
Lightning Bolt,
The J.B.'s,
the Slits,
the Sonics,
Aswad,
Pere Ubu,
The Doors,
Tommy Roe,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Hoover,
Lou Reed,
Barry Ungar,
The Birthday Party,
Guru Guru,
Donny Hathaway,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Cowsills,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Basic Channel,
Boredoms,
Fear,
Schoolly D,
JFA,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Deadbeat,
Crispy Ambulance,
Marvin Gaye,
Maleditus Sound,
Gastr Del Sol,
Livin' Joy,
Saccharine Trust,
Roger Hodgson,
Echospace,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Erasure,
Joe Finger,
Henry Cow,
Inner City,
Newcleus,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys, Dead Boys.
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.