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 Sweden and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron 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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane to the grunge 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 Desert Stars. All the underground hits.
All Liaisons Dangereuses tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Tremeloes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a chamberlin 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 marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Thompson Twins,
the Slits,
The Wake,
Youth Brigade,
The Gap Band,
The Remains,
James Chance & The Contortions,
John Cale,
Moss Icon,
Television Personalities,
Crash Course in Science,
Al Stewart,
The Raincoats,
the Bar-Kays,
Archie Shepp,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Pretty Things,
Skarface,
Sixth Finger,
Oblivians,
The Five Americans,
Eric B and Rakim,
Faust,
Gastr Del Sol,
Piero Umiliani,
Slick Rick,
Blancmange,
Pagans,
a-ha,
Electric Prunes,
The Motions,
Hoover,
Rotary Connection,
La Düsseldorf,
Symarip,
The Human League,
The Vogues,
Reagan Youth,
The Flesh Eaters,
D'Angelo,
John Lydon,
Rites of Spring,
B.T. Express,
Royal Trux,
Donny Hathaway,
Minor Threat,
The Shadows of Knight,
Cecil Taylor,
Nik Kershaw,
The Grass Roots,
Byron Stingily,
Lakeside,
Carl Craig,
Roxette,
Mark Hollis,
The Victims,
The Dave Clark Five,
Lou Christie,
The Saints,
The Slackers,
In Retrospect,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.