prince on american bandstand

in 1978
new york was still a jungle
and the hustlers were truly awful curs
everything was darker
and your face
was still unformed
and uninformed
your drove a mercury
straight through the holland tunnel
halogen flash after halogen flash
against dull plain tiles
hundreds of thousands
and the exhaust fume smell
that never quite escapes
the depths of the hudson
and called jersey home
just like all the other suckers