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 Vietnam and from Tehran.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Outsiders to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Near 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fort Wilson Riot,
Crooked Eye,
Faraquet,
Gichy Dan,
B.T. Express,
Erykah Badu,
Delon & Dalcan,
Eve St. Jones,
Rites of Spring,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Anthony Braxton,
Wasted Youth,
Model 500,
The Count Five,
JFA,
Chris & Cosey,
Dave Gahan,
Fat Boys,
Piero Umiliani,
Sun City Girls,
Stockholm Monsters,
R.M.O.,
Altered Images,
Soft Cell,
Peter and Kerry,
The Velvet Underground,
D'Angelo,
Gabor Szabo,
The Detroit Cobras,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Pharoah Sanders,
Yazoo,
Alison Limerick,
48th St. Collective,
The Toasters,
Alton Ellis,
Tomorrow,
Schoolly D,
Essential Logic,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Letta Mbulu,
The Flesh Eaters,
Audionom,
The Kinks,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Erasure,
The Star Department,
David Axelrod,
The Martian,
The Five Americans,
Eric B and Rakim,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Harmonia,
China Crisis,
Godley & Creme,
Gang Starr,
Harpers Bizarre,
David Bowie,
Sun Ra,
Crash Course in Science,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines.
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.