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 Rwanda and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Real Kids to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Deadbeat. All the underground hits.
All Sex Pistols tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 harpsichord 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 clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Depeche Mode,
The Evens,
Sound Behaviour,
the Bar-Kays,
This Heat,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Metal Thangz,
Royal Trux,
Dennis Brown,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Faust,
Schoolly D,
June Days,
Fad Gadget,
Brand Nubian,
The Star Department,
Marine Girls,
Icehouse,
Erasure,
In Retrospect,
Letta Mbulu,
Echospace,
Gang of Four,
Crooked Eye,
Lyres,
Can,
Aswad,
Franke,
Reuben Wilson,
Laurel Aitken,
Mantronix,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Flipper,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Accadde A,
Lungfish,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Pretty Things,
Minutemen,
Kool Moe Dee,
Silicon Teens,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
KRS-One,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
the Fania All-Stars,
Half Japanese,
Warsaw,
B.T. Express,
Soft Cell,
The Human League,
Cal Tjader,
Tubeway Army,
Brick,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Erykah Badu,
Nils Olav,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Inner City,
Nas, Nas, Nas, Nas.
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.