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 Qatar and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Young Marble Giants to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Accadde A. All the underground hits.
All Bizarre Inc. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Doors 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a harpsichord 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 güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Saints,
New York Dolls,
Loose Ends,
Prince Buster,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Hoover,
Skaos,
The Names,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Adolescents,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Black Dice,
Brass Construction,
PIL,
Joy Division,
Girls At Our Best!,
Albert Ayler,
Subhumans,
The Last Poets,
Yazoo,
Peter and Kerry,
Ronan,
Big Daddy Kane,
Dead Boys,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
the Human League,
Lou Christie,
Electric Prunes,
Brothers Johnson,
Moby Grape,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ossler,
Robert Görl,
Radiohead,
the Soft Cell,
Newcleus,
Amazonics,
The Monochrome Set,
Quando Quango,
Throbbing Gristle,
Duran Duran,
Blake Baxter,
Sex Pistols,
Heaven 17,
The Gun Club,
Cheater Slicks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Smiths,
Arthur Verocai,
The Blackbyrds,
Blossom Toes,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Modern Lovers,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Marvin Gaye,
Oblivians,
Sparks,
Mo-Dettes,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Knickerbockers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Gregory Isaacs, Gregory Isaacs, Gregory Isaacs, Gregory Isaacs.
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.