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 Afghanistan and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Audionom to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Wire. All the underground hits.
All Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minutemen 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord 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 organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Sonics,
Sarah Menescal,
Althea and Donna,
LL Cool J,
Country Teasers,
The Velvet Underground,
Boz Scaggs,
Susan Cadogan,
Jacques Brel,
Curtis Mayfield,
Young Marble Giants,
Crispy Ambulance,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
John Foxx,
Moby Grape,
The Last Poets,
Joy Division,
Banda Bassotti,
The Names,
Spoonie Gee,
Essential Logic,
Harry Pussy,
Zapp,
Albert Ayler,
Aural Exciters,
Brand Nubian,
New Order,
Mary Jane Girls,
Archie Shepp,
Black Moon,
Dawn Penn,
the Human League,
The Moody Blues,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bootsy Collins,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Liliput,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
the Germs,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gang of Four,
Yellowson,
Kayak,
Gang Starr,
AZ,
Marc Almond,
The Mojo Men,
Derrick May,
Kaleidoscope,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Janne Schatter,
The Kinks,
Jerry Gold Smith,
MC5,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Jeru the Damaja,
Reuben Wilson,
The Trojans,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.