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 Micronesia and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Cairo.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the marimba 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 Gun Club to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All DNA tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pretty Things record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a spring reverb 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 theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Saints,
Josef K,
Sonic Youth,
Todd Rundgren,
Pussy Galore,
Max Romeo,
Section 25,
Q and Not U,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Susan Cadogan,
The Monochrome Set,
Prince Buster,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Slackers,
Jacques Brel,
the Germs,
ABC,
Lakeside,
Pere Ubu,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Cure,
Kayak,
Cybotron,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Quantec,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Frankie Knuckles,
Radiohead,
Lou Reed,
Intrusion,
The Zeros,
Flipper,
Icehouse,
a-ha,
AZ,
MC5,
Gang of Four,
The Evens,
Eden Ahbez,
Gil Scott Heron,
John Coltrane,
Interpol,
Japan,
Heaven 17,
Con Funk Shun,
New York Dolls,
8 Eyed Spy,
Pole,
Rekid,
John Lydon,
Eric Copeland,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Moss Icon,
Magma,
Rufus Thomas,
Tropical Tobacco,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Bizarre Inc.,
Aaron Thompson,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Stetsasonic,
H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme.
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.