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 Palau and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Bootsy's Rubber Band to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Rotary Connection. All the underground hits.
All Joe Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare 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 synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Leonard Cohen,
Pulsallama,
Kayak,
Gang Starr,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Rufus Thomas,
The Durutti Column,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Nick Fraelich,
Adolescents,
The Happenings,
Connie Case,
Wire,
Kool Moe Dee,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sonny Sharrock,
Joe Finger,
Scion,
Television Personalities,
Agitation Free,
Stereo Dub,
Marine Girls,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Judy Mowatt,
Pussy Galore,
Nico,
The Standells,
Anakelly,
The Walker Brothers,
Derrick Morgan,
Flash Fearless,
Slave,
a-ha,
Hashim,
Theoretical Girls,
The Slackers,
Franke,
Thee Headcoats,
Q65,
Todd Rundgren,
Minor Threat,
Boogie Down Productions,
Youth Brigade,
Aloha Tigers,
Laurel Aitken,
The Mojo Men,
Supertramp,
10cc,
Nas,
Neil Young,
Eric Copeland,
Kurtis Blow,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Divine Comedy,
Don Cherry,
The Dead C,
Inner City,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Porter Ricks,
Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur.
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.