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 Syria and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bob Dylan to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 The Black Dice. All the underground hits.
All Robert Wyatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lafayette Afro Rock Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 clarinet and a guitar 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 sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
These Immortal Souls,
Derrick Morgan,
The Young Rascals,
Icehouse,
Nils Olav,
the Human League,
The New Christs,
Idris Muhammad,
CMW,
Severed Heads,
Tim Buckley,
Sonic Youth,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Remains,
Brothers Johnson,
Arcadia,
June Days,
Curtis Mayfield,
Joyce Sims,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Flipper,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Cecil Taylor,
Soul Sonic Force,
L. Decosne,
The Saints,
Boredoms,
Electric Prunes,
Rites of Spring,
UT,
Kerri Chandler,
Suicide,
Cheater Slicks,
Duran Duran,
Rekid,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
David McCallum,
Al Stewart,
FM Einheit,
Wire,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Doors,
The Misunderstood,
Metal Thangz,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Das Ding,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Dorothy Ashby,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Pantytec,
Peter and Kerry,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sister Nancy,
the Sonics,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
kango's stein massive,
Urselle,
The Fugs,
Bluetip,
The Barracudas,
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow.
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.