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 Greece and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 linndrum 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 Barry Ungar to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Flash Fearless. All the underground hits.
All Sister Nancy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marmalade 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a snare 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 theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
Absolute Body Control,
The Martian,
Minutemen,
The Sound,
Sound Behaviour,
Bob Dylan,
Leonard Cohen,
Joey Negro,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Kerri Chandler,
Mark Hollis,
Schoolly D,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Archie Shepp,
The Techniques,
Tubeway Army,
Amazonics,
Eve St. Jones,
Sugar Minott,
Oblivians,
Jerry's Kids,
Unrelated Segments,
Todd Terry,
Cluster,
Funky Four + One,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Oneida,
Y Pants,
E-Dancer,
Patti Smith,
Underground Resistance,
Barrington Levy,
Rod Modell,
the Germs,
10cc,
Chrome,
Massinfluence,
Maurizio,
The Last Poets,
Harmonia,
The Sonics,
cv313,
Yellowson,
Interpol,
L. Decosne,
The Buckinghams,
Alice Coltrane,
Q and Not U,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
KRS-One,
Gabor Szabo,
The Detroit Cobras,
K-Klass,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Soft Cell,
Average White Band,
Gastr Del Sol,
June Days,
Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force.
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.