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 Portugal and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 LL Cool J to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Echospace. All the underground hits.
All Bill Near tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kings Of Tomorrow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Whodini record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
Tubeway Army,
Boz Scaggs,
Pylon,
The Durutti Column,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Selecter,
The Mummies,
Symarip,
Radio Birdman,
Monolake,
Roy Ayers,
In Retrospect,
Pagans,
This Heat,
Trumans Water,
Crooked Eye,
Rites of Spring,
Quando Quango,
Duran Duran,
The Move,
Marine Girls,
Letta Mbulu,
Soul Sonic Force,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Yazoo,
Swell Maps,
Can,
The Sonics,
Alton Ellis,
Anthony Braxton,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Kurtis Blow,
The Cowsills,
Blancmange,
Bang On A Can,
Eric Copeland,
Frankie Knuckles,
Half Japanese,
Echospace,
Junior Murvin,
a-ha,
Pierre Henry,
The Gories,
James White and The Blacks,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pere Ubu,
Peter & Gordon,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Anakelly,
Flamin' Groovies,
Gang of Four,
Wire,
Funkadelic,
Erasure,
Cybotron,
Qualms,
Cal Tjader,
Neil Young,
The Golliwogs,
FM Einheit,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters.
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.