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 Azerbaijan and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic 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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Laurel Aitken to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Minnie Riperton. All the underground hits.
All Bang On A Can tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Byron Stingily record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 rhodes and a theremin 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 rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sex Pistols,
Jacques Brel,
Ponytail,
The Vogues,
Yaz,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Monochrome Set,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Chrome,
Man Eating Sloth,
Derrick May,
Lindisfarne,
Sällskapet,
Outsiders,
Fatback Band,
Alton Ellis,
The Pop Group,
Funky Four + One,
Technova,
Mandrill,
Ronnie Foster,
Eve St. Jones,
The Blackbyrds,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Scientists,
Circle Jerks,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Fall,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
U.S. Maple,
Television,
Anakelly,
The Detroit Cobras,
Von Mondo,
Minutemen,
Bobby Womack,
Soft Cell,
Vainqueur,
The Associates,
Make Up,
Sight & Sound,
Nas,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Cymande,
Radiohead,
PIL,
Thompson Twins,
Stereo Dub,
The Walker Brothers,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
the Bar-Kays,
Liliput,
Lower 48,
DNA,
The Invisible,
Piero Umiliani,
Joe Finger,
Pagans,
Deakin,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood.
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.