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 Cyprus and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez 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 Accra and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Nirvana to the funk 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 48th St. Collective. All the underground hits.
All The Names tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Angels of Light record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
Nirvana,
Moss Icon,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ronan,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
the Soft Cell,
Man Eating Sloth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Radio Birdman,
ABBA,
The Slackers,
Ice-T,
Mission of Burma,
Babytalk,
Connie Case,
The Grass Roots,
The Pop Group,
The Wake,
Leonard Cohen,
Deepchord,
Bauhaus,
T.S.O.L.,
Nation of Ulysses,
Kerri Chandler,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Todd Rundgren,
Black Flag,
The Leaves,
Johnny Clarke,
Young Marble Giants,
Aaron Thompson,
Popol Vuh,
Lucky Dragons,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Fania All-Stars,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Blancmange,
Lou Reed,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Idris Muhammad,
Von Mondo,
H. Thieme,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Last Poets,
Don Cherry,
kango's stein massive,
New Order,
The Cure,
The Neon Judgement,
Warren Ellis,
The Fall,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Shuggie Otis,
New York Dolls,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sandy B,
Echospace,
Piero Umiliani,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Royal Trux,
Tears for Fears,
Audionom,
The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes.
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.