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 Cambodia 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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Man Parrish to the rap 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 Spoonie Gee. All the underground hits.
All The Young Rascals tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alphaville record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 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 rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
T. Rex,
The Sound,
Howard Jones,
Alice Coltrane,
Shoche,
Ultra Naté,
LL Cool J,
Khruangbin,
Leonard Cohen,
Ponytail,
In Retrospect,
Nirvana,
Babytalk,
Marc Almond,
The Monks,
Echospace,
Fugazi,
Robert Görl,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
One Last Wish,
Massinfluence,
Zapp,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Dead Boys,
Erasure,
Zero Boys,
Newcleus,
Icehouse,
F. McDonald,
KRS-One,
Moss Icon,
The Cowsills,
Bauhaus,
Wire,
Eric Dolphy,
Interpol,
X-102,
The Fall,
MC5,
The Birthday Party,
Roger Hodgson,
The Last Poets,
Tim Buckley,
The Smoke,
The Smiths,
Marcia Griffiths,
E-Dancer,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Niagra,
Mo-Dettes,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Grey Daturas,
Cecil Taylor,
The Gap Band,
The Invisible,
Tomorrow,
Maurizio,
Joe Smooth,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Aural Exciters,
Dawn Penn,
The Music Machine, The Music Machine, The Music Machine, The Music Machine.
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.