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 Ghana and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Madrid.
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 1983 at the first Bronski Beat practice in a loft in Brixton.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Ronnie Foster to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 A Certain Ratio. All the underground hits.
All 8 Eyed Spy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scratch Acid record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer 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 synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mars,
Khruangbin,
Pussy Galore,
Kevin Saunderson,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Idris Muhammad,
Letta Mbulu,
Glambeats Corp.,
Danielle Patucci,
The Golliwogs,
The Dead C,
Grauzone,
X-102,
Gang Gang Dance,
Unwound,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Half Japanese,
48th St. Collective,
Basic Channel,
Gabor Szabo,
The Shadows of Knight,
Neu!,
Q65,
Aural Exciters,
Pere Ubu,
Swans,
Nick Fraelich,
Slave,
The Fire Engines,
Jacques Brel,
Althea and Donna,
K-Klass,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Country Teasers,
Soulsonic Force,
Fat Boys,
Frankie Knuckles,
Symarip,
Howard Jones,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Bluetip,
Unrelated Segments,
Wings,
Cheater Slicks,
Donny Hathaway,
Crispy Ambulance,
Brothers Johnson,
Leonard Cohen,
Prince Buster,
The Count Five,
Newcleus,
The Five Americans,
Babytalk,
Lalann,
Crime,
Laurel Aitken,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Fela Kuti,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Television,
The Zeros,
Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange.
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.