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 Djibouti and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Warsaw to the funk 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Absolute Body Control tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terry Callier 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator 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 synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Searchers,
Ronnie Foster,
Bronski Beat,
The Monks,
Symarip,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Joy Division,
Blossom Toes,
Suburban Knight,
Jeff Lynne,
Maurizio,
Amon Düül II,
Sun City Girls,
Curtis Mayfield,
John Cale,
The Kinks,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Leaves,
Girls At Our Best!,
the Association,
The Fall,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Chris Corsano,
Glenn Branca,
Vainqueur,
Scientists,
Urselle,
Das Ding,
Dead Boys,
Von Mondo,
The Dead C,
The Angels of Light,
The Mummies,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
X-101,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
the Slits,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Index,
ABC,
Pylon,
Franke,
The Music Machine,
The Buckinghams,
Sonic Youth,
PIL,
EPMD,
Q and Not U,
Yellowson,
Patti Smith,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Todd Rundgren,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Make Up,
Ponytail,
Public Enemy,
The Slackers,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Quantec,
Brick,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel.
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.