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 Sri Lanka and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 spring reverb 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 The Leaves to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 London Community Gospel Choir. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a linndrum 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 oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
48th St. Collective,
The Searchers,
DNA,
Drive Like Jehu,
Index,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Velvet Underground,
Panda Bear,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Marine Girls,
The J.B.'s,
Stetsasonic,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Swans,
Wasted Youth,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Massinfluence,
Trumans Water,
Bad Manners,
Stiv Bators,
Parry Music,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Yazoo,
Jesper Dahlback,
The United States of America,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Last Poets,
Infiniti,
Deepchord,
Siglo XX,
Television Personalities,
Harmonia,
Godley & Creme,
The New Christs,
The Invisible,
Camouflage,
Television,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Boz Scaggs,
Janne Schatter,
Skriet,
T.S.O.L.,
Alphaville,
Q and Not U,
Eyeless In Gaza,
John Lydon,
The Beau Brummels,
Technova,
Derrick Morgan,
Glenn Branca,
Blake Baxter,
Minny Pops,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Chris Corsano,
Drexciya,
Fatback Band,
Dorothy Ashby,
Archie Shepp,
Boredoms,
Black Sheep,
The Fortunes,
Anakelly,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Half Japanese, Half Japanese, Half Japanese, Half Japanese.
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.