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 Cape Verde and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Black Sheep to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Stetsasonic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a linndrum 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 clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
Scion,
Freddie Wadling,
Alphaville,
Darondo,
Eric B and Rakim,
FM Einheit,
Lou Reed,
Sonny Sharrock,
Kaleidoscope,
Warren Ellis,
Radio Birdman,
Das Ding,
Aural Exciters,
Jacob Miller,
Gichy Dan,
B.T. Express,
The Walker Brothers,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Saccharine Trust,
The Tremeloes,
Zero Boys,
Rotary Connection,
Agent Orange,
The Selecter,
Amon Düül II,
The Count Five,
The Sound,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bobby Byrd,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Talk Talk,
Faust,
Nas,
Agitation Free,
Soul II Soul,
New York Dolls,
Piero Umiliani,
Eric Copeland,
Wolf Eyes,
Ludus,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Q and Not U,
Colin Newman,
Con Funk Shun,
Niagra,
Bauhaus,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Inner City,
Can,
David Axelrod,
Graham Central Station,
Suicide,
Jeff Mills,
The Detroit Cobras,
Kas Product,
Ornette Coleman,
The Last Poets,
AZ,
One Last Wish,
Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive.
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.