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 Poland and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 Average White Band to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Brick. All the underground hits.
All L. Decosne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Womack 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin 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 rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
Tubeway Army,
Quando Quango,
Oneida,
Beasts of Bourbon,
MDC,
Wasted Youth,
the Bar-Kays,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Procol Harum,
The Mojo Men,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The J.B.'s,
Icehouse,
Rekid,
Mars,
DNA,
Howard Jones,
Matthew Bourne,
Wings,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Little Man,
Masters at Work,
Second Layer,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Johnny Clarke,
cv313,
David McCallum,
Bobby Womack,
Minor Threat,
the Normal,
Scratch Acid,
The Birthday Party,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Skaos,
Scrapy,
Arab on Radar,
Magma,
Eric Dolphy,
The Electric Prunes,
The Count Five,
Tres Demented,
Sun Ra,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mary Jane Girls,
Spandau Ballet,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Tomorrow,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Happenings,
Morten Harket,
Sexual Harrassment,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Black Sheep,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Public Enemy,
Dual Sessions,
U.S. Maple, U.S. Maple, U.S. Maple, U.S. Maple.
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.