“Starfish and Coffee” is a Prince song that can cheer you up in almost any situation — even waking up to realize that Prince is really gone.
The tune, a joyously catchy ditty from Prince’s wildly underrated “Sign O’ the Times” album, takes us back to his childhood. To the surprise of no one, Prince went to a weird elementary school, one where a mischievous girl named Cynthia Rose liked to describe her extremely unique breakfasts.
Prince was notorious for keeping his songs from popping up where he didn’t want them, but a rare video of him acting out “Starfish and Coffee” with the Muppets got lots of attention after his death Tuesday.
The clip, from the late 1990s ABC show “Muppets Tonight,” is subtly different from the version on “Sign O’ the Times.” But it’s still beautiful from beginning to end.
With nothing to prove by 1987, Prince went personal on “Sign O’ the Times” — or at least let us feel like we were getting a glance behind the purple curtain. There’s no telling what “Starfish and Coffee” is really about, but it recaptures the magical childhood feeling of not yet knowing what is — and isn’t — possible.
Try to hold on to that feeling, because it seems to have worked for Prince.