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 Maldives and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the marimba 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 Skaos to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Blancmange. All the underground hits.
All The Music Machine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magazine 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ossler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New York Dolls,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Sound,
Bill Near,
Tres Demented,
Rakim,
Mad Mike,
Hashim,
This Heat,
ABC,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Brothers Johnson,
Q65,
Andrew Hill,
Ice-T,
The Smiths,
Dead Boys,
Stereo Dub,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Black Moon,
Scion,
Sam Rivers,
Pulsallama,
Nation of Ulysses,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Audionom,
World's Most,
Colin Newman,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Alice Coltrane,
The Happenings,
Visage,
John Holt,
Eli Mardock,
The Motions,
John Coltrane,
K-Klass,
Symarip,
Roxette,
Delta 5,
Faraquet,
Grauzone,
Wally Richardson,
Henry Cow,
The American Breed,
The Offenders,
Rosa Yemen,
Siglo XX,
Schoolly D,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Scan 7,
Can,
The Slits,
Stiv Bators,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Negative Approach,
Neu!,
Ken Boothe,
Joyce Sims,
Josef K,
OOIOO,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.