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 Solomon Islands and from Accra.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Philadelphia.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Radiopuhelimet to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. All the underground hits.
All Graham Central Station tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Toni Rubio 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a linndrum 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 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
Gichy Dan,
Hashim,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Kerrie Biddell,
Rites of Spring,
Flamin' Groovies,
David Bowie,
Charles Mingus,
Porter Ricks,
The Velvet Underground,
Deadbeat,
The Sound,
Inner City,
Accadde A,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
John Coltrane,
Rekid,
Soulsonic Force,
The Tremeloes,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Ornette Coleman,
Ten City,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Lindisfarne,
Stetsasonic,
The Monks,
Supertramp,
Circle Jerks,
Lungfish,
Suburban Knight,
Brand Nubian,
The Count Five,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Idris Muhammad,
Gang Gang Dance,
Black Sheep,
Brick,
Stiv Bators,
Kevin Saunderson,
Frankie Knuckles,
Roger Hodgson,
Make Up,
JFA,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ronan,
T. Rex,
The Victims,
Lou Reed,
Marmalade,
The Dave Clark Five,
Mad Mike,
Traffic Nightmare,
Crash Course in Science,
Nils Olav,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Max Romeo,
Sparks,
Warren Ellis,
Vainqueur,
Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock.
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.