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 Denmark and from Madrid.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The American Breed to the grime 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 Grey Daturas. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Skarface record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord 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 harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
The Real Kids,
The Red Krayola,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Rekid,
China Crisis,
Chris & Cosey,
Saccharine Trust,
Lou Reed,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Deadbeat,
Roy Ayers,
Amazonics,
Crash Course in Science,
Pantaleimon,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Lightning Bolt,
Gichy Dan,
The Walker Brothers,
Royal Trux,
Matthew Bourne,
Lebanon Hanover,
MC5,
Nas,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Litter,
Maleditus Sound,
Dawn Penn,
Sound Behaviour,
Bush Tetras,
Blancmange,
Tropical Tobacco,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Can,
Roxy Music,
Skarface,
The Vogues,
the Bar-Kays,
Smog,
Reuben Wilson,
Oblivians,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Heaven 17,
Deepchord,
Simply Red,
Pussy Galore,
Letta Mbulu,
Severed Heads,
Bobby Byrd,
X-102,
Groovy Waters,
Barclay James Harvest,
Niagra,
Marvin Gaye,
Public Enemy,
Young Marble Giants,
The Index,
Black Bananas,
John Holt, John Holt, John Holt, John Holt.
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.