Erotic City, 1984

It's the 40th anniversary of Prince's 1984 hit Erotic City. Remember where you were the 1st time you heard this classic? Erotic City found me in the city of Augusta, GA with a girl named Johnny Mae

"If we cannot make babies

Maybe we can make some time

Fuck so pretty, you and me

Erotic City come alive

We can fuck until the dawn

Makin' love 'til cherry's gone

Erotic City, can't you see?

Fuck so pretty, you and me!"

Do you remember where you were when Erotic City dropped?

I do.

It was late 1984 and I had just arrived at Fort Gordon, in Augusta, Georgia, having just finished basic training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, up on Tank Hill.

I was 18 years old, hormones bursting at the seams, hornier than a horny toad, having been deprived of women for 9 weeks straight in the backwoods of SC, and here we were in a target rich environment.

That first night in Fort Gordon, me and my crew of former trainees, with the haircuts to prove it, headed for the Enlisted Men’s club on the post, I forgets the name, but it was huge and filled with beer and women, both soldiers and civilians from off-post. Off-post meant they were from the city of Augusta or the towns that surrounded it.

That night, I met a girl from one of these towns, a mountain town I can't recall, outside of Augusta. She had driven at least an hour to get to the post, and I remember her so well. She was what they called corn-fed, as Lionel Ritchie had sang "a brickhouse", as Sugarfoot sang in “Skintight”, she was "running folks into ditches..." she was the one. Thick everywhere, even her accent. Country-est girl this citified boy had ever met. Spoke with a twang, but soft spoken, "aw shucks" like Bill Clinton when he's trying to coax a vote from you. She had Leo hair, like a mane, very big, like Patti Labelle or Phyllis Hyman. And a smile that never abandoned her face. Not even for a moment. She was devouring every second of my company, or pretending convincingly to, which is just as good.

Her name was Johnny. I swear to god. Johnny Mae. And she had never met a New Yorker before. She rarely even came to Augusta. Augusta was the big city to her. We chatted for a while and soaked in one another's accents. And before long we danced. Just two dances. That's all it took for us to fall in love that night. Love was easy at 18. 

And the first song we danced to was this song I'd never heard before sung by an artist I knew very well: Prince.

The song? Erotic City. 

The dance? The Prep, of course!! 

If you’re unfamiliar with The Prep, peep this:

I couldn't do this country ass dance, had never even seen it before in NY, not that I was a club head in my teens but I'd gone to my share of hooky parties and block parties and whatnot, but the whole damn club was doing the prep so I watched everyone including Johnny Mae and learned to Prep that night, my first night in Augusta. (And wound up prepping throughout 84 and 85.)

The second song we danced to was a slow jam inspired by Prince by a group called Ready for the World. The song was called "Tonight".

How can you NOT fall in love when you're 18 making a tent pole in your pants on the dance floor grinding to this?

"You're probably thinking you're gonna be a woman after all of this.

Let me tell you: you're more woman than I've ever seen girl tonight!"

After that it was sooooo on!

Anyway, that's what Erotic City conjures up...Johnny Mae. And if you're out there reading this JM, know that I'll never forget you or that night! <3

Happy anniversary, Erotic City!