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 Palau and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Fall. All the underground hits.
All The Walker Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yellowson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 marimba and an oboe 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 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David McCallum,
Skaos,
Sonny Sharrock,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Slits,
Shuggie Otis,
Eve St. Jones,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Bronski Beat,
Rhythm & Sound,
Loose Ends,
Black Bananas,
Youth Brigade,
OOIOO,
Zero Boys,
Fear,
Boredoms,
A Certain Ratio,
Bob Dylan,
Banda Bassotti,
Pagans,
Crooked Eye,
Black Pus,
Animal Collective,
Howard Jones,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Scrapy,
Maleditus Sound,
Ice-T,
Echospace,
Sister Nancy,
Newcleus,
Roy Ayers,
Soft Cell,
The Dave Clark Five,
Ornette Coleman,
Sonic Youth,
The Gladiators,
Ultravox,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Kas Product,
Cymande,
Schoolly D,
The J.B.'s,
Leonard Cohen,
Ponytail,
Wally Richardson,
The Velvet Underground,
Joey Negro,
Dave Gahan,
Terry Callier,
Alphaville,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Liliput,
The Grass Roots,
Erasure,
Wasted Youth,
the Bar-Kays,
Severed Heads,
Blossom Toes,
Crime,
Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd.
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.