In case you slept through yesterday, let me say, Prince died. (BTW, Whitney and Micheal are gone too.)

Today there is speculation about painkillers being involved. I sincerely hope not. Those are dangerous, deadly things.

But I don’t want to focus on that. I’d rather talk about Prince, or rather my sister, Jennie. I was a little too young for music when Prince first hit the scene. But my sister wasn’t, and she developed this fascination with this little androgynous man. Not that I knew the word for it. I just knew I was witnessing something special.

And dirty.

So dirty.

And hot.

As I grew up, I came to appreciate him, in all his weird, sexy glory. Name changes. Funky hair. Superbowl performance. And most importantly, some of the best music of my lifetime.

So thank you, Prince, for a funky time.

Here’s still my favorite song of his: Darling Nikki

I knew a girl named Nikki

I guess you could say she was a sex fiend
I met her in a hotel lobby
Masturbating with a magazine
She said how’d you like to waste some time
And I could not resist when I saw little Nikki grind

She took me to her castle
And I just couldn’t believe my eyes
She had so many devices
Everything that money could buy
She said sign your name on the dotted line
The lights went out
And Nikki started to grind

Nikki

The castle started spinning
Or maybe it was my brain
I can’t tell you what she did to me
But my body will never be the same
Her lovin’ will kick your behind
Oh, she’ll show you no mercy
But she’ll sho’nuff sho’nuff show you how to grind

Darlin’ Nikki

Woke up the next morning
Nikki wasn’t there
I looked all over and all I found
Was a phone number on the stairs
It said thank you for a funky time
Call me up whenever you want to grind

Oh, Nikki, ohhhh

Come back Nikki, come back
Your dirty little Prince
Wanna grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind

“Hello, how are you? I’m fine. ’cause I know
That the Lord is coming soon, coming, coming soon.”