I sound like a broken record with my Prince posts, so let me sum it up:

Prince + after-hours performance + 1980’s output = Best Prince

Hmm, I guess I have to conjure up a Not So Best Prince formula.

I’ll try: Prince + Tony M. + “Jughead” = Not So Best Prince.

“Jughead”, from ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, is THE worst Prince song of all time. Totally unlistenable. Not far behind is the title track from ‘Graffiti Bridge’. LOTS of good tunes on the album (“Question of U”, “We Can Funk”, “Joy in Repetition”), but “Graffiti Bridge” itself is cringe-inducing for sure.

For the Comments section below: What are your Best and Not So Best Prince formulas [formulae?]. Worst song?

But back to the best of Prince. The Lovesexy tour was my first live Prince experience (two shows at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Sept, ’88). This aftershow came a couple months later. After playing the Oakland Coliseum, Prince and his band zipped across the Bay Bridge and set up at the Warfield Theater.

That evening, the lucky Warfield audience caught great versions of “Positivity” (the closing song on ‘Lovesexy’), “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”, and the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” (and a lot more). Question for the Prince fans…. “Imagination” turns into a refrain of “Sitting in this cafe, waiting for my baby.” I’m wondering about this song, namely what it is. The age old trick of plugging lyrics into Google gets me nowhere! Does .. not .. compute.

Prince
Warfield Theatre
San Francisco, CA
November 10, 1988 (aftershow)

Lineup:
Prince (everything)
Mico Weaver (guitar)
Levi Seacer (bass)
Sheila E. (drums, percussion)
Cat (eye candy)
Matt (Dr.) Fink (keys, synth)
Boni Boyer (keys, vox) [who sadly passed away in 1996 at age 38 due to a brain aneurysm]
Eric Leeds (sax)
Matt (Atlanta Bliss) Blistan (trumpet)

1. Positivity
2. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker / Four (Madhouse)
3. Housequake > Take The A-Train
4. Housequake (ending)
5. Just My Imagination > Sitting In This Cafe (Waiting For My Baby)
6. I’ll Take You There > Take this Beat (from “I Wish U Heaven” 12″ version; it is hard to get funkier than this)
7. Cold Sweat
8. Prince Drum Solo > Sheila E. Percussion Solo
9. Lovesexy > It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night > Chain Of Fools > Beautiful Night

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