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 Singapore and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Paris.
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 Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 John Coltrane to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Modern Lovers. All the underground hits.
All Cheater Slicks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fatback Band 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 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 rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-102,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Black Pus,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The American Breed,
Soul II Soul,
Henry Cow,
Crooked Eye,
Delta 5,
The Names,
Television,
Youth Brigade,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Knickerbockers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Mark Hollis,
Neil Young,
Desert Stars,
Theoretical Girls,
The Human League,
Girls At Our Best!,
La Düsseldorf,
Radiohead,
Barclay James Harvest,
In Retrospect,
Arcadia,
Michelle Simonal,
Unwound,
Fluxion,
Nick Fraelich,
Technova,
Spandau Ballet,
Index,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Schoolly D,
The Motions,
The Mummies,
Eric Dolphy,
Audionom,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Skatalites,
The Dirtbombs,
Fela Kuti,
Pulsallama,
Janne Schatter,
The Wake,
Public Image Ltd.,
Eric Copeland,
Half Japanese,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Amon Düül,
Babytalk,
Q and Not U,
Faraquet,
Juan Atkins,
Peter & Gordon,
Second Layer,
Grauzone,
The Move,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance, Gang Gang Dance.
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.