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 Tajikistan and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Mummies to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 JFA. All the underground hits.
All Alphaville tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lakeside 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Inner City,
Black Flag,
Minutemen,
The Cowsills,
Symarip,
The Mummies,
MC5,
10cc,
DJ Style,
Juan Atkins,
Barbara Tucker,
Bizarre Inc.,
Eve St. Jones,
The Gladiators,
The Last Poets,
Dark Day,
Robert Hood,
Delta 5,
Fear,
Morten Harket,
T.S.O.L.,
Massinfluence,
Darondo,
Shuggie Otis,
The Litter,
Kool Moe Dee,
Crispian St. Peters,
JFA,
Ultra Naté,
Pantytec,
Rites of Spring,
Delon & Dalcan,
Henry Cow,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Sound Behaviour,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Quando Quango,
The Velvet Underground,
Crime,
Camouflage,
Jacob Miller,
Scratch Acid,
Absolute Body Control,
Donny Hathaway,
Malaria!,
MDC,
Ponytail,
R.M.O.,
Ohio Players,
Ultimate Spinach,
Zapp,
Dead Boys,
Harmonia,
Brand Nubian,
Easy Going,
Scott Walker,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Mo-Dettes,
Ituana,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy.
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.