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 Costa Rica and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Be Bop Deluxe to the grunge 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 Harry Pussy. All the underground hits.
All John Cale tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Audionom record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an oboe and a synthesizer 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 snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
June of 44,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Young Marble Giants,
Altered Images,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Boredoms,
The Cure,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Busters,
Banda Bassotti,
Sixth Finger,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
X-Ray Spex,
Qualms,
Camouflage,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Monks,
The Durutti Column,
Fatback Band,
ABC,
Brand Nubian,
David Axelrod,
The Shadows of Knight,
Visage,
China Crisis,
Big Daddy Kane,
Rhythm & Sound,
Index,
Stereo Dub,
Dorothy Ashby,
Rekid,
KRS-One,
Soft Cell,
Brick,
Radiohead,
the Association,
Kayak,
The Monochrome Set,
The Motions,
Wire,
One Last Wish,
Surgeon,
Yellowson,
Lalo Schifrin,
Skarface,
Lebanon Hanover,
Ponytail,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Icehouse,
Bill Wells,
Bizarre Inc.,
Unrelated Segments,
Sandy B,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Maleditus Sound,
Bang On A Can,
K-Klass,
James White and The Blacks,
Von Mondo,
Camberwell Now,
The Neon Judgement,
In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect.
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.