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 Saudi Arabia and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 organ 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 Lee Hazlewood to the disco 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 Jeff Lynne. All the underground hits.
All Franke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerri Chandler 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an arpeggiator 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 snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Graham Central Station,
Eve St. Jones,
Altered Images,
Suburban Knight,
The Vogues,
the Slits,
Dorothy Ashby,
X-102,
Fear,
Fugazi,
These Immortal Souls,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Sixth Finger,
Slick Rick,
Joensuu 1685,
Fluxion,
Minor Threat,
Minnie Riperton,
Ituana,
The Black Dice,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Cramps,
The Remains,
Charles Mingus,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Evens,
Alice Coltrane,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Eric Copeland,
The Raincoats,
Jandek,
The Divine Comedy,
Dual Sessions,
New York Dolls,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
John Foxx,
Sexual Harrassment,
Animal Collective,
The Cosmic Jokers,
kango's stein massive,
Marshall Jefferson,
The United States of America,
Jacob Miller,
Interpol,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Vladislav Delay,
Gerry Rafferty,
Alton Ellis,
Agitation Free,
Pussy Galore,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Kerrie Biddell,
John Coltrane,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Model 500,
Sandy B,
The Sound,
The Residents,
Amazonics,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Velvet Underground,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Pharoah Sanders,
Accadde A, Accadde A, Accadde A, Accadde A.
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.