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 Swaziland and from Johannesburg.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Lonnie Liston Smith to the jazz 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 Justin Hinds & The Dominoes. All the underground hits.
All Bronski Beat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crooked Eye record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Move,
Ice-T,
The Sound,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Malaria!,
John Foxx,
Easy Going,
Nation of Ulysses,
Aloha Tigers,
Moss Icon,
Gong,
Schoolly D,
Thee Headcoats,
Lou Christie,
Simply Red,
Eve St. Jones,
Mark Hollis,
Lalo Schifrin,
Crooked Eye,
Fatback Band,
Neil Young,
The Durutti Column,
Sun City Girls,
The Gladiators,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Slackers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Babytalk,
Kerri Chandler,
Urselle,
Prince Buster,
Bobby Womack,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Doors,
the Germs,
Liliput,
Blossom Toes,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Arthur Verocai,
Q65,
Ornette Coleman,
The Divine Comedy,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Gabor Szabo,
The Vogues,
John Cale,
Reuben Wilson,
Morten Harket,
Bizarre Inc.,
Camberwell Now,
Cybotron,
Brothers Johnson,
Albert Ayler,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sparks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Braxton.
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.