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 Argentina and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 a-ha to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 The Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Men They Couldn't Hang record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Donny Hathaway,
Davy DMX,
Procol Harum,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
8 Eyed Spy,
Moby Grape,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
June Days,
Gang of Four,
The Monks,
Negative Approach,
Black Moon,
10cc,
Royal Trux,
Soulsonic Force,
Radiopuhelimet,
Symarip,
PIL,
Fluxion,
Suicide,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Trumans Water,
The Real Kids,
Faraquet,
Sonic Youth,
Soul II Soul,
Thompson Twins,
The Remains,
Fatback Band,
A Certain Ratio,
Malaria!,
Neil Young,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Sun City Girls,
The Buckinghams,
Kurtis Blow,
The Mojo Men,
The Smoke,
Glenn Branca,
Eric Dolphy,
Andrew Hill,
Stiv Bators,
The Doors,
X-Ray Spex,
The Tremeloes,
Crispy Ambulance,
Popol Vuh,
The Index,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bobby Byrd,
Aswad,
Swell Maps,
Main Source,
Erasure,
Average White Band,
Crooked Eye,
Sister Nancy,
Barbara Tucker,
JFA, JFA, JFA, JFA.
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.