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 Guinea-Bissau and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 DJ Sneak to the electroclash 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 Vaughan Mason & Crew. All the underground hits.
All Chrome tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yaz 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet 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 arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Eric Copeland,
Parry Music,
The Blues Magoos,
Crispy Ambulance,
UT,
Spoonie Gee,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Kayak,
Marvin Gaye,
the Sonics,
Moebius,
The Busters,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Donald Byrd,
Susan Cadogan,
The Durutti Column,
Dead Boys,
The Evens,
Tropical Tobacco,
Henry Cow,
Spandau Ballet,
The Grass Roots,
Flipper,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Matthew Bourne,
Judy Mowatt,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Dennis Brown,
Unwound,
Nick Fraelich,
Buzzcocks,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Joensuu 1685,
Gil Scott Heron,
Kevin Saunderson,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Count Five,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Interpol,
Radiopuhelimet,
Yusef Lateef,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Severed Heads,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Depeche Mode,
Public Enemy,
Laurel Aitken,
Sun Ra,
Mo-Dettes,
The Leaves,
Peter & Gordon,
The Motions,
Ossler,
The Martian,
Wally Richardson,
Y Pants,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Lalo Schifrin,
Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix.
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.