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 Venezuela and from Lyon.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the 808 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 Gang Green to the techno 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 Nils Olav. All the underground hits.
All Skaos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sam Rivers 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator 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 marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Outsiders,
Vainqueur,
Tears for Fears,
AZ,
Blossom Toes,
The Offenders,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
This Heat,
MDC,
Leonard Cohen,
Eurythmics,
Roxy Music,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Dave Clark Five,
Stereo Dub,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
UT,
Sun City Girls,
Dennis Brown,
Lyres,
Morten Harket,
Thompson Twins,
The Mummies,
John Cale,
Connie Case,
Godley & Creme,
Letta Mbulu,
E-Dancer,
Althea and Donna,
Rhythm & Sound,
Quadrant,
Buzzcocks,
Peter and Kerry,
Au Pairs,
Main Source,
Nas,
Eric Dolphy,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gabor Szabo,
Monks,
James White and The Blacks,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ituana,
The Golliwogs,
Swell Maps,
Dual Sessions,
Jandek,
The Slits,
Sällskapet,
The Black Dice,
The Music Machine,
Nico,
Cabaret Voltaire,
FM Einheit,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Human League,
Jesper Dahlback,
Model 500,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Camouflage,
The Residents,
Archie Shepp,
Saccharine Trust,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.