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Reply #30 posted 05/05/09 1:56pm

purplecam

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Love the video, love the song! music
I'm not a fan of "old Prince". I'm not a fan of "new Prince". I'm just a fan of Prince. Simple as that
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Reply #31 posted 05/05/09 4:09pm

SupaFunkyOrgan
grinderSexy

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What a fantastic song touched
2010: Healing the Wounds of the Past.... http://prince.org/msg/8/325740
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Reply #32 posted 05/05/09 4:20pm

MRGee

This is my FAVORITE song from the album and I loved him on LETTERMAN. I would wear a crystal DOLPHIN around my neck...
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Reply #33 posted 05/05/09 4:29pm

TheEnglishGent

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Dayclear said:

I remember this girl on another Prince site that actually thouhgt this song was about a Dolphin and she coulddn't understand why Prince was singing about a fish!
Did you put her straight that dolphins are mammals, not fish? wink razz

Love this track, one of the many highlights of The Gold Experience for me.
RIP sad
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Reply #34 posted 05/05/09 6:13pm

nurseV

ernestsewell said:

twistee said:

So I have to ask:
What exactly do people like about this song?
I'm not sold on it - but I'm not writing it off either. I just wonder why others like it so much. The lyrics? The rock guitar thing? The whole "gold" visuals & style? Just curious.
Fill me in!


It's a good rock song. It's trippy in part, but a straight forward rock song in others. It's a plea, and it's heartfelt.

It always seems to me that people have totally missed the message of the song though.

Let's review: Prince was right smack dab in the middle of his war with WB. It wasn't heating up, it wasn't over. It was right in the middle of the fire. That whole album was full of angst, machismo, anger, and his hope of freedom to record what he wanted and release it when he wanted (the latter of which was his real battle, not the content).

"Dolphin" was a plea to be heard and appreciated. Not only had WB fell out of Prince's favor, but Prince had fallen out of the favor of the WB brass heads. He wanted their attention, not their vitriolic stagnation of his output. The 90's was also a huge time for the environmental movement to come to the forefront. People truly seemed more involved with saving the whales, or having dolphins safe tuna, or saving the seals, than they were worried about contracts in music. Prince simply said, "If I came back as a dolphin, would you listen to me then?"

His line about "How will U know if I'm even in the right key, If U make me stop before I start?" was a straight forward statement of "If you won't listen to the music, how will you know me?" The idea of cutting off the fins is a direct statement to the level of output Prince had compared to the once-a-year approach WB had with his music. (How many bootlegs do we have simply because it was a delayed release and Prince lost interest in certain songs and replaced them with something else?)

The line about his brother going hungry is a nod to the idea that people like Little Richard and others worked for years, yet when they left Motown or whatever label they were on, they had nothing. Their contracts put them in debt, despite making millions. (Berry Gordy was notorious for making contracts that always had the artist in debt to Motown, thereby always keeping them working...even when Diana Ross finally left Motown, she owed a huge amount, simply based on those contracts, not because she didn't sell millions of records.)

He also said that despite them limited his releases (cutting of fins), that he would NOT bend to what they wanted ("But to ur ways I will not bend"). "I'll die b4 I let you tell me how to swim" is really the same thing he's said for years about non-musicians running a record company. "How dare YOU tell ME how to play music, when you can barely play the radio!" The very opening line of "How beautiful do the words have to be, before they conquer every heart" is a straight out line saying "What do I have to do so you take care of me again? What do I have to say or do that will make you love me again, like you did years ago?)

Yes, the song is a big metaphor, but if you think about his struggle at the time, and the things he was talking about, the song is very clear.



Very nice song and nice description wink
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Reply #35 posted 05/05/09 7:35pm

jill4life

nurseV said:

ernestsewell said:



It's a good rock song. It's trippy in part, but a straight forward rock song in others. It's a plea, and it's heartfelt.

It always seems to me that people have totally missed the message of the song though.

Let's review: Prince was right smack dab in the middle of his war with WB. It wasn't heating up, it wasn't over. It was right in the middle of the fire. That whole album was full of angst, machismo, anger, and his hope of freedom to record what he wanted and release it when he wanted (the latter of which was his real battle, not the content).

"Dolphin" was a plea to be heard and appreciated. Not only had WB fell out of Prince's favor, but Prince had fallen out of the favor of the WB brass heads. He wanted their attention, not their vitriolic stagnation of his output. The 90's was also a huge time for the environmental movement to come to the forefront. People truly seemed more involved with saving the whales, or having dolphins safe tuna, or saving the seals, than they were worried about contracts in music. Prince simply said, "If I came back as a dolphin, would you listen to me then?"

His line about "How will U know if I'm even in the right key, If U make me stop before I start?" was a straight forward statement of "If you won't listen to the music, how will you know me?" The idea of cutting off the fins is a direct statement to the level of output Prince had compared to the once-a-year approach WB had with his music. (How many bootlegs do we have simply because it was a delayed release and Prince lost interest in certain songs and replaced them with something else?)

The line about his brother going hungry is a nod to the idea that people like Little Richard and others worked for years, yet when they left Motown or whatever label they were on, they had nothing. Their contracts put them in debt, despite making millions. (Berry Gordy was notorious for making contracts that always had the artist in debt to Motown, thereby always keeping them working...even when Diana Ross finally left Motown, she owed a huge amount, simply based on those contracts, not because she didn't sell millions of records.)

He also said that despite them limited his releases (cutting of fins), that he would NOT bend to what they wanted ("But to ur ways I will not bend"). "I'll die b4 I let you tell me how to swim" is really the same thing he's said for years about non-musicians running a record company. "How dare YOU tell ME how to play music, when you can barely play the radio!" The very opening line of "How beautiful do the words have to be, before they conquer every heart" is a straight out line saying "What do I have to do so you take care of me again? What do I have to say or do that will make you love me again, like you did years ago?)

Yes, the song is a big metaphor, but if you think about his struggle at the time, and the things he was talking about, the song is very clear.



Very nice song and nice description wink



Thanks, very interesting back story.
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Reply #36 posted 05/05/09 7:59pm

muleFunk

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thedance said:

Very strange marketing: I remember seeing this video on MTV around october/ november 1994 - and there were no single or album to buy, and it was before the internet, I was desperate to get the song, but it wasn't released until THE GOLD EXPERIENCE album was released almost A YEAR later.... in september 1995.


---
[Edited 5/5/09 2:05am]


The whole Gold Experience was fucked up from beginning to end.

The GOLD/COME concept was supposed to be tied into the Interactive CD Rom game with EPs for GOLD and COME to be released as a before CDrom and after type of thing or kind of like what Guns and Roses did with the duel album parts 1 and two. There are several stories to the concepts and styles . One COME was going to be a 5 song EP with Endorphinmachine,Interactive,Race,Papa,and Peach and GOLD was goin to be a full blown album concept with TMBGITW, Pussy Control,Days Of Wild on it.

Depending on who is telling he story either Prince was told that he could not release this concept or Prince decided to go on his own with the concept and release it with another company, the whole thing stalled. Come was released in 1994 as the last Prince album and Gold was stalled for a year as the coming out party for prince.

When Gold was released WB DID NOT PROMOTE and PRINCE DID NOT PROMOTE the album. The "hit" single was I Hate U that was the last Prince song to crack the top 20. The lack of promotion of GOLD led to Prince saying that he wanted out of WB.
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Reply #37 posted 05/06/09 10:06pm

MRGee

I remember us fans waited so damn long for THE GOLD EXPERIENCE to come out and when PRINCE did the LETTERMAN show we actually got a PREVIEW of the album cover,but it was Different then the one we got to buy. And I remember being out at Paisley in those days he did the shows at night which rocked so Bad. We went out for some shows and ended up staying like 2 weeks cause he just played and played. I remember when he was suppose to go on Sat Night Live that year,but he was suffering with the FLU and drinking Tea onstage. He cancelled SNL. My friend and I slept in the car once cause we couldn't get a room out in Minnie. Some Sports Event and we had to stay at a MOTEL 8 that was way out of the way. We should have stayed in MINNEAPOLIS cause when we returned to NYC we both lost our jobs anyway,but got new ones so no biggie. But maybe me staying out there well he might have never gotten Married to Mayte in the first place. He did dig my long Blond Hair and wild clothes..I thought he was gonna flip. biggrin
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