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 El Salvador and from Lagos.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the snare 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 The Jesus and Mary Chain to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Half Japanese. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mo-Dettes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Masters at Work record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dorothy Ashby,
The Young Rascals,
Hoover,
Magazine,
The American Breed,
The Velvet Underground,
The New Christs,
Kenny Larkin,
The Cosmic Jokers,
MDC,
The Raincoats,
Dark Day,
New Order,
Brass Construction,
The Associates,
The Mojo Men,
Barry Ungar,
Ten City,
The Music Machine,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Arcadia,
Lindisfarne,
Bluetip,
Sugar Minott,
Lalann,
The Dirtbombs,
U.S. Maple,
Don Cherry,
The Invisible,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Lightning Bolt,
48th St. Collective,
Gang of Four,
Television,
Deakin,
Eurythmics,
Procol Harum,
Buzzcocks,
Ultravox,
Audionom,
Bauhaus,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Last Poets,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Saints,
Cluster,
The Barracudas,
World's Most,
The Flesh Eaters,
Godley & Creme,
The Cramps,
Scrapy,
Lakeside,
Ituana,
Letta Mbulu,
Guru Guru,
The Fire Engines,
Isaac Hayes,
the Soft Cell,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.