When she sang Jump...

I asked how high.

"Baby" June Pointer died on Tuesday and for reasons that are completely different from the reasons I miss William Coffin, I am missing June a lot.

Despite what should have been "my better angels" I loved The Pointer Sisters and especially June. In the late 80s they were absolutely the quintessential example of my MTV guilty pleasure. Their song Jump (and the accompanying video with June sashaying into the camera lens) sent me into complete apoplexy, a semi-conscious seizure of embarassing ecstacy and giddiness. Even now, almost 20 years later, when I REALLY should know better, I can't listen to this song without bouncing my feet, nodding my head, and... and... and.. when that chorus comes... JUMP into a dance around the room (even if those guys down on the street can see).

Their version of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town was the central highlight of the first "Very Special Christmas" album and was a feature of the first project I worked on with Marsha, a Christmas pantomime of kids from her 4-6 grade Sonoma school kids.

The Pointers were also, strangely, a minor feature of the early infatuations that Marsha and I experienced with one another. Knowing my strange enjoyment of the girls, Marsha gave me the birthday present of a trip to Lake Tahoe to see them in concert at Harvey's Casino. It was a good time had by all and one of those weird snapshots that comes to define a relationship. So much so, that one of my first reactions to news of June's death from cancer on Tuesday, was, "well... yeah... that figures."

June and her sisters, true to their roots in Gospel music, always brought me a sense of joy and hope and in a year that has been devoid of much of either it leaves me with a strange feeling to be losing June now too. New Orleans music maestro Alan Toussaint penned one of my favorite Pointer songs (a fact that I was not aware of until about a year ago) and it's been a song that has brought me strength and courage during much of this past year's despair. It's a song of triumph, and purpose, and clarity and desire. It's an anthem to overcoming and going on; a perfect song of Easter expectation in the middle of this dark progress through to Good Friday.

I think it makes a fitting tribute to June.

I know we can make it... I know darn well!