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 Bahamas and from Lyon.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Woodstock.
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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Schoolly D to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Big Daddy Kane. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Susan Cadogan 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Index record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Womack,
Model 500,
The Buckinghams,
Nik Kershaw,
In Retrospect,
Ronan,
Whodini,
Surgeon,
Brass Construction,
Zapp,
Mandrill,
Schoolly D,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Yusef Lateef,
Talk Talk,
Subhumans,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Cymande,
Frankie Knuckles,
James White and The Blacks,
Jacob Miller,
Barry Ungar,
Youth Brigade,
New Age Steppers,
Gabor Szabo,
Kerrie Biddell,
Leonard Cohen,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Jimmy McGriff,
Babytalk,
Public Image Ltd.,
Stiv Bators,
Robert Görl,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Dennis Brown,
The Mojo Men,
Godley & Creme,
Arab on Radar,
The Last Poets,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Matthew Bourne,
Steve Hackett,
Nick Fraelich,
Johnny Osbourne,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Main Source,
PIL,
Gerry Rafferty,
Skriet,
Hashim,
Circle Jerks,
Sexual Harrassment,
Davy DMX,
Fugazi,
Bizarre Inc.,
Mantronix,
Crispian St. Peters,
Yellowson,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.