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 Zambia and from Cairo.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Bill Wells to the punk 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Louis and Bebe Barron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Raincoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 sitar and a güiro 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?
The Standells,
Alice Coltrane,
The Angels of Light,
Yellowson,
The Invisible,
Gerry Rafferty,
Soft Machine,
K-Klass,
The Sonics,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Cosmic Jokers,
China Crisis,
The New Christs,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Bluetip,
Altered Images,
Minor Threat,
Gong,
OOIOO,
Morten Harket,
Junior Murvin,
Lucky Dragons,
D'Angelo,
Kayak,
Pagans,
Black Flag,
Babytalk,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
New Order,
Man Eating Sloth,
Lebanon Hanover,
Soul II Soul,
Lindisfarne,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Grandmaster Flash,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
the Human League,
Lower 48,
Fad Gadget,
Liliput,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sight & Sound,
Rufus Thomas,
DNA,
Second Layer,
The Moody Blues,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Busters,
Mo-Dettes,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
John Lydon,
Pole,
Minny Pops,
Yazoo,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Japan,
ABBA,
Can,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Terry Callier,
Marmalade,
Scott Walker,
Toni Rubio,
Scientists,
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.