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 Samoa and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television 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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 arpeggiator 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 Juan Atkins to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Zapp. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pagans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Patti Smith,
Depeche Mode,
48th St. Collective,
Saccharine Trust,
X-Ray Spex,
The Trojans,
Ultra Naté,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Section 25,
Grey Daturas,
Robert Wyatt,
Joy Division,
The Modern Lovers,
Pantytec,
Absolute Body Control,
The Black Dice,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Saints,
Roger Hodgson,
Jeff Lynne,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Pere Ubu,
The Smiths,
Cybotron,
Hot Snakes,
Mandrill,
Moss Icon,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jeru the Damaja,
Ossler,
Rod Modell,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Blues Magoos,
Ice-T,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Dead C,
cv313,
Deadbeat,
Newcleus,
Brothers Johnson,
Subhumans,
Gastr Del Sol,
Scan 7,
The Victims,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Knickerbockers,
Gang Gang Dance,
Byron Stingily,
Alton Ellis,
Cal Tjader,
The Wake,
Loose Ends,
Warsaw,
the Human League,
Kurtis Blow,
Peter and Kerry,
Pagans,
John Coltrane,
The Remains,
The Red Krayola,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.