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 Paraguay and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Standells to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Robert Hood. All the underground hits.
All Skriet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a sitar 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 guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Bananas,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Music Machine,
Leonard Cohen,
Absolute Body Control,
Altered Images,
Derrick May,
X-101,
Heaven 17,
The Velvet Underground,
Nas,
Johnny Clarke,
Toni Rubio,
Grandmaster Flash,
AZ,
The Invisible,
Suburban Knight,
Minutemen,
The Gap Band,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Henry Cow,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Roy Ayers,
Jeff Mills,
Marcia Griffiths,
Patti Smith,
Q and Not U,
Surgeon,
Nik Kershaw,
X-Ray Spex,
This Heat,
Jerry's Kids,
Nirvana,
Scratch Acid,
Skaos,
The Beau Brummels,
The Angels of Light,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Soul II Soul,
World's Most,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
John Foxx,
Talk Talk,
Bill Near,
The J.B.'s,
Tubeway Army,
Brick,
James Chance & The Contortions,
One Last Wish,
Harmonia,
Eli Mardock,
Soft Cell,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Rufus Thomas,
Chris & Cosey,
Sister Nancy,
The Sound,
Lou Reed,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Young Rascals,
Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes.
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.