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 Peru and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 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 Surgeon. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlbäck tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerri Chandler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an organ 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 rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hoover,
Ken Boothe,
Henry Cow,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Trojans,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Music Machine,
Big Daddy Kane,
Q and Not U,
Traffic Nightmare,
Donald Byrd,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
James White and The Blacks,
Camouflage,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
the Association,
Slick Rick,
Qualms,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
New Age Steppers,
Joe Smooth,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Excepter,
10cc,
a-ha,
Bootsy Collins,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Don Cherry,
Glenn Branca,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Jimmy McGriff,
DJ Style,
The Misunderstood,
Minutemen,
Metal Thangz,
Girls At Our Best!,
Yellowson,
Sun Ra,
The Gun Club,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Japan,
Main Source,
Motorama,
The Stooges,
The Fall,
Mars,
the Slits,
Patti Smith,
Crispian St. Peters,
Wings,
The Velvet Underground,
Leonard Cohen,
cv313,
This Heat,
Blancmange,
The Dave Clark Five,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Joe Finger,
The Durutti Column,
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA.
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.