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 Fiji and from Manila.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the güiro 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 Jeru the Damaja to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Ornette Coleman. All the underground hits.
All Skaos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rufus Thomas 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a guitar 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 spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Symarip,
The Vogues,
The Mojo Men,
Sonny Sharrock,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Electric Prunes,
Technova,
Absolute Body Control,
The Monochrome Set,
China Crisis,
Stetsasonic,
Juan Atkins,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Howard Jones,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Golliwogs,
Lungfish,
Fluxion,
The Smoke,
Sight & Sound,
Iggy Pop,
Rakim,
Soft Cell,
Brick,
Infiniti,
Inner City,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Nas,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Wings,
The Fall,
The Beau Brummels,
New York Dolls,
Rotary Connection,
Smog,
Tomorrow,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Moby Grape,
Gichy Dan,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Underground Resistance,
New Age Steppers,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Knickerbockers,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Last Poets,
Kerrie Biddell,
Warsaw,
The Velvet Underground,
The Fire Engines,
The Modern Lovers,
Gerry Rafferty,
Joy Division,
Fad Gadget,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Goldenarms,
Grandmaster Flash,
Barrington Levy,
Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye.
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.