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 Kyrgyzstan and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 oboe 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 Birthday Party to the grime 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 The Mojo Men. All the underground hits.
All Selector Dub Narcotic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an organ 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 theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
Peter & Gordon,
Pere Ubu,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Agitation Free,
The Raincoats,
Cluster,
Jandek,
Slick Rick,
AZ,
Lebanon Hanover,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Jimmy McGriff,
These Immortal Souls,
Quadrant,
Kas Product,
Sarah Menescal,
Franke,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Frankie Knuckles,
John Holt,
Zapp,
Make Up,
X-Ray Spex,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Busters,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Theoretical Girls,
Section 25,
Hardrive,
Skarface,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Desert Stars,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Flamin' Groovies,
Pharoah Sanders,
Sight & Sound,
Big Daddy Kane,
Second Layer,
Colin Newman,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Los Fastidios,
Dawn Penn,
Oblivians,
Wasted Youth,
Porter Ricks,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Minnie Riperton,
Howard Jones,
Index,
the Slits,
Pet Shop Boys,
Rod Modell,
Wire,
Vladislav Delay,
Smog,
Quantec,
Harmonia,
Arthur Verocai,
Ituana,
David Axelrod,
The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things.
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.