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 Uruguay and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 guitar 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 Detroit Cobras to the jazz 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 Faust. All the underground hits.
All Jimmy McGriff tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every D'Angelo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a 808 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 linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Letta Mbulu,
Brand Nubian,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Sister Nancy,
Crash Course in Science,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Smoke,
Organ,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Electric Prunes,
Colin Newman,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Wake,
Pere Ubu,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
UT,
Pulsallama,
The Evens,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bootsy Collins,
Nation of Ulysses,
Freddie Wadling,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sexual Harrassment,
Pantaleimon,
Wings,
Erasure,
The Velvet Underground,
Henry Cow,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Au Pairs,
Thee Headcoats,
Amon Düül,
Spandau Ballet,
Leonard Cohen,
Bill Wells,
Josef K,
The Selecter,
the Swans,
Pylon,
The Leaves,
Dennis Brown,
Vainqueur,
Slave,
Swell Maps,
Ronan,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Cymande,
Porter Ricks,
Camouflage,
The Buckinghams,
Reagan Youth,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Doobie Brothers,
Connie Case,
Motorama,
The Detroit Cobras,
Toni Rubio,
Joy Division,
Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger, Sixth Finger.
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.