It was '82

Me and my girl we did it one time

Said I love you, moved in together

That's how you did

Never considered people might think an interracial couple was something

We were in that love bubble, and it was Oakland

Full of black people and white people. no big

'83 we moved to another hood in Oaktown, an apartment building

Still stood out as the black and white dykes

Still didn’t care

Driving her 64 chevy pickup, I heard this pornografalsetto song

And thought, whoa, who's this chick getting so personal on the radio

Then the DJ said, "that was prince singing Do Me Baby,"

And I said oh shit I need to pay more attention to this genderfucker

We moved to the white neighborhood

Still standing out. still not caring

But I think it started to wear on us a little, specially her

Being the only white dyke in a black hood

Was different than being the only black dyke in a white neighborhood

'84, my best friend from hi skool told me he was positive

I got off the phone and broke down

Sat in the living room that year

Under the Gone with the Wind spoof poster

Of Thatcher and Reagan with the mushroom cloud in the background

Watched Mad Max, Brother From Another Planet

Liquid Sky, The Hunger, Christiane F, and Sid and Nancy

6 times each before returning them to the video store

Drank a million Buds and Slip n Slid with our pals in our wifebeaters

And mirrored cop shades before they became wife pleasers

We most definitely weren’t wife beaters

Beating the hell out of each other over a freebase pipe

Sat in front of Grandma's converted TV console

High lacquer cherrywood cabinet full of records and a turntable

Drank myself silly to Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins

And Gil Scott and Suzie Quatro and the B52s

For hours, listening to Prince's Controversy

Turning the album cover over in my hands

Analyzing. did he really mean it?

Did he love us that much?

Was he really saying this?

(****)

"Am I black or white, am I straight or gay?..

People call me rude, I wish we all were nude

I wish there was no black and white

I wish there were no rules…"

We were all alone in a world where Christians wanted us dead

But there was Prince, coke and whisky and Starfish and Coffee

And Let's Go Crazy and Jack U Off and Annie Christian

And Purple Rain, a cult crossover hit

And Under the Cherry Moon, panned by critics

But he could do no wrong

And ruffled shirts and romance and femme dykes onstage

His spittin' image, girl versions of him

A narcissist dream of straight acting queers fucking the mirror

Like there might be something going on

Just like us and our pals, brown and black and white

Fags n dykes passing joints at the disco

Sexy even if there was a plague, one big cuddle party

It didn’t feel lonesome

It felt right and like motherfuckers better make room for us

Because if they didn’t, we were coming through anyway

Led by the most fearless, least fucks-giving motherfucker on the planet

With all the moves and a voice

That could go from girl to boy in a second

If he wasn’t intimidated, neither were we

'89, me and my records got tossed on the street

Cuz I got high and everyone was mad

2016 I’m ashamed now more than I was that day

Because when I look to pay homage to the man

I gotta go on the internet like some kinda poser

Cuz I never bought new Prince records

The night after he leaves us, it's a full moon

I put on When Doves Cry, but it keeps stopping in the middle

Because everyone in the world is playing it

Becuz somewhere along the line we all lost our records

The clouds are all over the moon

She’s real big behind that cloud cover, I can tell

I light the candles and say

Come out, you gotta call him home

And the clouds part, and I say

I’m sorry Prince. I lost the records

I’m sorry. it's not that I ever stopped loving you

I just thought you’d always be there