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 Guinea-Bissau and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Eve St. Jones to the electroclash 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 Fluxion. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Animal Collective record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 linndrum 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 chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television,
John Cale,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Pet Shop Boys,
Parry Music,
Archie Shepp,
Erasure,
Lower 48,
Flash Fearless,
Arab on Radar,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ultravox,
Cymande,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Eddi Front,
Young Marble Giants,
Circle Jerks,
The Red Krayola,
Swans,
Joe Finger,
Don Cherry,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Rotary Connection,
The J.B.'s,
Sexual Harrassment,
Gang Green,
Sonic Youth,
Rufus Thomas,
Sonny Sharrock,
Quadrant,
Massinfluence,
Eve St. Jones,
ABBA,
Roxette,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Sam Rivers,
Cal Tjader,
Jandek,
Bootsy Collins,
Boogie Down Productions,
FM Einheit,
David McCallum,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Vogues,
Joey Negro,
The Skatalites,
New York Dolls,
Minor Threat,
The Motions,
Audionom,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Moody Blues,
Crime,
Alton Ellis,
Terry Callier,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Moon,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Last Poets,
Dark Day,
The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five.
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.