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 Cuba and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Zero Boys to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Q and Not U. All the underground hits.
All Banda Bassotti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cecil Taylor 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Howard Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
Cybotron,
Drexciya,
The Techniques,
Aural Exciters,
The Smoke,
The Fugs,
Ultravox,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Boz Scaggs,
Eddi Front,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Robert Hood,
Sight & Sound,
Hardrive,
Kurtis Blow,
The Invisible,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Anakelly,
Talk Talk,
Donny Hathaway,
Von Mondo,
Slick Rick,
Pussy Galore,
Television Personalities,
The Doors,
The United States of America,
Steve Hackett,
Audionom,
The Cure,
Marine Girls,
Urselle,
Henry Cow,
Black Flag,
The Selecter,
Archie Shepp,
R.M.O.,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Roger Hodgson,
Don Cherry,
Interpol,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Tomorrow,
John Holt,
The Evens,
Cluster,
Joey Negro,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Surgeon,
Funky Four + One,
Symarip,
Pierre Henry,
A Certain Ratio,
Eden Ahbez,
K-Klass,
The Leaves,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Juan Atkins,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.