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 Bhutan and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide show in New York.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the theremin 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 Johnny Clarke to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Goldenarms record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 a rhodes and an oboe 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 arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gichy Dan,
Audionom,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Walker Brothers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Gil Scott Heron,
Average White Band,
Tomorrow,
Talk Talk,
Shuggie Otis,
Lower 48,
Television Personalities,
Pierre Henry,
Graham Central Station,
Suburban Knight,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Joensuu 1685,
Unrelated Segments,
Soft Cell,
Tubeway Army,
the Association,
Stetsasonic,
Anthony Braxton,
Bootsy Collins,
John Cale,
The Durutti Column,
Trumans Water,
Fatback Band,
The Cramps,
Joe Smooth,
the Germs,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Blues Magoos,
Davy DMX,
Ossler,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Sam Rivers,
Barrington Levy,
T.S.O.L.,
Banda Bassotti,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
a-ha,
The Mummies,
Marcia Griffiths,
the Slits,
Supertramp,
The Selecter,
DJ Sneak,
Tropical Tobacco,
Aural Exciters,
The Dirtbombs,
The Residents,
Wasted Youth,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Monolake,
The Martian,
Derrick May,
Bobby Byrd,
Gang Gang Dance,
Darondo,
the Soft Cell,
Technova, Technova, Technova, Technova.
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.