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 Uruguay and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Beijing.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the snare 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 Pop Group to the rock 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 Joe Smooth. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marcia Griffiths record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 a sitar and a spring reverb 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 clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
R.M.O.,
Surgeon,
Lindisfarne,
Slave,
Mr. Review,
Von Mondo,
Livin' Joy,
Camouflage,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Real Kids,
Hashim,
Black Sheep,
F. McDonald,
The Walker Brothers,
Ronnie Foster,
Tom Boy,
Easy Going,
Television,
The Fall,
Barry Ungar,
Bluetip,
Fluxion,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Mission of Burma,
Infiniti,
The New Christs,
The Dead C,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Q65,
Sight & Sound,
Arcadia,
The J.B.'s,
Pylon,
Urselle,
The Pretty Things,
Altered Images,
Underground Resistance,
Anthony Braxton,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Scientists,
Pole,
Cluster,
Clear Light,
Schoolly D,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bill Near,
The Slackers,
John Foxx,
Pere Ubu,
Dennis Brown,
Peter & Gordon,
June Days,
Absolute Body Control,
Aswad,
Outsiders,
Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse.
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.