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 Yemen and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Barrington Levy to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Erasure. All the underground hits.
All Jeff Lynne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wasted Youth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a spring reverb and an oboe 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 güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Suicide,
John Holt,
Godley & Creme,
Joey Negro,
John Foxx,
The Buckinghams,
Sonny Sharrock,
Blake Baxter,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Quantec,
The Grass Roots,
The Gap Band,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rakim,
ABBA,
Kayak,
The Modern Lovers,
Faust,
Dark Day,
Kerrie Biddell,
Procol Harum,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Leaves,
the Slits,
Symarip,
Bootsy Collins,
Motorama,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Davy DMX,
Yazoo,
the Soft Cell,
The Dead C,
Vladislav Delay,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Sixth Finger,
Sparks,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Scientists,
Bad Manners,
Throbbing Gristle,
Bobby Womack,
Donny Hathaway,
Suburban Knight,
The Walker Brothers,
Bobby Sherman,
Pussy Galore,
Saccharine Trust,
Unrelated Segments,
Joy Division,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Stockholm Monsters,
Little Man,
Lindisfarne,
Barry Ungar,
Half Japanese,
The Detroit Cobras,
Agitation Free,
Reagan Youth,
Khruangbin,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Absolute Body Control,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.