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 Estonia and from Seoul.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Kango’s Stein Massive to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Inner City tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Livin' Joy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet 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 synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Bowie,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
David Axelrod,
Jeff Mills,
The Smiths,
The Beau Brummels,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Grandmaster Flash,
Alice Coltrane,
Symarip,
Robert Hood,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Prince Buster,
Swell Maps,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Slits,
The Busters,
The Flesh Eaters,
Scan 7,
Interpol,
World's Most,
Siglo XX,
Al Stewart,
Joyce Sims,
Connie Case,
Don Cherry,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Lou Reed,
Severed Heads,
X-101,
The Dead C,
Pet Shop Boys,
Girls At Our Best!,
Arab on Radar,
Ponytail,
Slave,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Guru Guru,
Camouflage,
The Walker Brothers,
Depeche Mode,
The Sonics,
Deadbeat,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Nas,
Byron Stingily,
Public Enemy,
Urselle,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Bang On A Can,
Gregory Isaacs,
Tom Boy,
The Invisible,
Easy Going,
Babytalk,
Yazoo,
Jacob Miller,
Delta 5,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.