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 Colombia and from Jakarta.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the snare 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 Selector Dub Narcotic 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 K-Klass. All the underground hits.
All Frankie Knuckles tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heaven 17 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro 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 oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Bootsy Collins,
Fad Gadget,
The Five Americans,
Derrick May,
Crime,
H. Thieme,
Freddie Wadling,
Tubeway Army,
The Shadows of Knight,
Mars,
Janne Schatter,
Gerry Rafferty,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
This Heat,
Ornette Coleman,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
David Axelrod,
Rosa Yemen,
Soulsonic Force,
Rufus Thomas,
Pole,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Quadrant,
Rekid,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lalann,
Godley & Creme,
Electric Prunes,
Gang of Four,
The Walker Brothers,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Grandmaster Flash,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Arcadia,
Oblivians,
Jawbox,
Bobby Sherman,
Eli Mardock,
Panda Bear,
Skriet,
Erykah Badu,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Durutti Column,
John Cale,
Gang Starr,
10cc,
Lou Reed,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rod Modell,
Joy Division,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Negative Approach,
Little Man,
Mandrill,
the Association,
Scratch Acid,
Minny Pops,
DJ Style, DJ Style, DJ Style, DJ Style.
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.