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 Niger and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 Taipei and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Golliwogs to the punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 T. Rex. All the underground hits.
All The Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ 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 sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Moby Grape,
Kurtis Blow,
The Grass Roots,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Quadrant,
The Fugs,
Soft Cell,
Robert Wyatt,
Eurythmics,
Zero Boys,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Moebius,
D'Angelo,
Agent Orange,
Index,
Trumans Water,
T.S.O.L.,
Lee Hazlewood,
Donald Byrd,
The Evens,
The Last Poets,
Liliput,
Gichy Dan,
The Smoke,
Robert Hood,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
The Velvet Underground,
Rotary Connection,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Mummies,
Absolute Body Control,
Main Source,
H. Thieme,
Hoover,
Parry Music,
Jimmy McGriff,
Joy Division,
Arab on Radar,
The Sound,
The Selecter,
Babytalk,
JFA,
Public Enemy,
Crooked Eye,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Steve Hackett,
Can,
Nation of Ulysses,
Y Pants,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Music Machine,
Jacques Brel,
The Residents,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Cymande,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Royal Trux,
The Barracudas,
Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding.
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.