I think the performance of Dolphin on Letterman must rank as one of his worst live performances ever - he just seemed totally detached and uninspired. What do you think?

bigbrother said:

I think the performance of Dolphin on Letterman must rank as one of his worst live performances ever - he just seemed totally detached and uninspired. What do you think?

When i first saw this performence i was really disapointed by his weak sounding voice! But thats how he sounds without all the effects like reverb and ohter stuff...

I think he was a bit peeved about Letterman having a bit of a rib at his expense before the performance.

I never cared for his performance of Dinner With Delores on the Today Show either. I think everything he did in 1995/early 1996 had that "detached" feel.

As for the Dolphin on Letterman, I do remember Letterman poking fun at the throughout the show leading up to the performance.

I liked it. It was a performance of a song that came out of nowhere and was not available for another year after the performance was aired.

It's not the performance I show to my friends if I want to show them something to show his skills.
The 'death scene' at the end is a little over the top for me.

bigbrother said:

I think the performance of Dolphin on Letterman must rank as one of his worst live performances ever - he just seemed totally detached and uninspired. What do you think?

No. The stuff he does NOW is uninspired. This performance had a low key vibe. Doesn't mean it's uninspired. His vocals were completely stripped down. He was tired. U could tell by the way he sang. U could hear it. But that's why I love it. The humility served well for the whole "slave" period. And I love the ending. That's why he's Prince because he does shit like that on top of his superb musicianship. Plus he doesn't wanna be standing next to tall ass Letterman. I think we all know by now that Prince is self concious about his height. Right?

I liked it

Aristotle said:

I liked it

nothing wrong w the performande...

I agree...phoned it in, and off key in spots ("little pitchy, a little pitchy").

i totally loved it

shame the song wasn't released as a real single back then. hot on the tracks of

tmbgitw, a nice mellow rock song would have done very well.

When I saw it I thought it was weird and light years away from the 1984 Grammy/AMA performances. But it was interesting to say the least.

I always thought the "Gold" era was P's way of trying to go back and be faceless, nameless and underground.

he looked hot until he collapsed. cool song

Se7en said:

I never cared for his performance of Dinner With Delores on the Today Show either. I think everything he did in 1995/early 1996 had that "detached" feel.

As for the Dolphin on Letterman, I do remember Letterman poking fun at the throughout the show leading up to the performance.

I haven't seen the Dolphin performance on Letterman and will have to look that up to contribute to the conversation, but the Dinner with Delores performance, IMO, seemed like he was more or less uninterested in performing. He could of just been having a bad day. The look on his face was like " let me hurry up and belt this shit out so I can get paid and go home. Mayte's makeup was all over my damn counter, she fucked up my shirt when she ironed it instead of letting the assistant do it. Damn hair stylist was a no show and I had to have someone else curl my damn hair but as you can see, that went left field 'cause it still looks like shit. Urgh."

This per4mance marked the reason why Prince has a dislike 4 Letterman. Prince was making an artistic expression with his feud & slavery of The WB. Dave made fun of his per4mance. Its the reason why Prince prefers Leno....

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

This per4mance marked the reason why Prince has a dislike 4 Letterman. Prince was making an artistic expression with his feud & slavery of The WB. Dave made fun of his per4mance. Its the reason why Prince prefers Leno....

Prince was doing his job of being a melodramatic rock star with an over-the-top piece of performance art at the end of his set.

Letterman was doing his job as a comedian to goof on him.

Don't forget that Prince did go on Letterman again in the summer of 1996 to perform "Dinner With Delores."

Prince prefers Leno, because Leno is a suck-ass who won't ask any hard (or relevant) questions and will bend over backwards to suck off his guests. It's a sign of the edge that Prince has lost that he keeps going on that ass-kisser's show.

No Prince recognizes real. Leno is a real dude. That is down to earth & comes out to chat with his audiences in regular clothes b 4 he starts his show..No ego at all. Letterman is untouchable...

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

No Prince recognizes real. Leno is a real dude. That is down to earth & comes out to chat with his audiences in regular clothes b 4 he starts his show..No ego at all. Letterman is untouchable...

Leno is the least real person in showbusiness.

I thought it was a terrific performance, and really different from some of the performances the general public had seen in years prior (Arsenio Hall's over-the-top, but great performances, or the MTV butt-showing performance, etc.).

I really love the dolphin performance, and thought he sounded great.

I also loved his exit.

Plus that was during a period of time that Prince could actually generate excitement in me about his upcoming albums. I mean, after hearing dolphin and a few other tracks from gold from the Beautiful Experience boots, I was stoked about The Gold Experience.

I don't think I've been excited for a Prince album since that time in his career.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

No Prince recognizes real. Leno is a real dude. That is down to earth & comes out to chat with his audiences in regular clothes b 4 he starts his show..No ego at all.

A lot of stars of taped shows do that.

Oh and dont even go there regarding ego. Evidently you dont know what you're talking about if you think Leno doesn't have an ego. The Tonight Show controversies are exactly hush hush. Where the hell you been? Thought you were an insider.

Mayte looked good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kenkamken said:

I enjoyed it, and he seemed to be in on the ribbing as I recall. Wasn't there a small skit with Paul Shaeffer? Anyway, his television appearances at the time were fairly rare so it was good to see him getting the attention. I thought the way the performance ended in mock suicide was his commentary on the biz that he was rebeling against... killing off the previous public manipulated persona and going for something more genuine. That was my read on it for whatever it's worth. Dolphin was my favorite song on that album as well.

It was performance art that by showing the death of Prince, he could be rebirth as the . Which Prince did at the AMA's approximately a month later. Remember at the end of his lip synched dance performance at the AMAs he was lifted up in a "Christ position" and then reappeared in between Mayte's legs re-birthed. This was also reinforced by 's speech that he gave after the performance.

kewlschool said:

kenkamken said:

I enjoyed it, and he seemed to be in on the ribbing as I recall. Wasn't there a small skit with Paul Shaeffer? Anyway, his television appearances at the time were fairly rare so it was good to see him getting the attention. I thought the way the performance ended in mock suicide was his commentary on the biz that he was rebeling against... killing off the previous public manipulated persona and going for something more genuine. That was my read on it for whatever it's worth. Dolphin was my favorite song on that album as well.

It was performance art that by showing the death of Prince, he could be rebirth as the . Which Prince did at the AMA's approximately a month later. Remember at the end of his lip synched dance performance at the AMAs he was lifted up in a "Christ position" and then reappeared in between Mayte's legs re-birthed. This was also reinforced by 's speech that he gave after the performance.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

kewlschool said:

It was performance art that by showing the death of Prince, he could be rebirth as the . Which Prince did at the AMA's approximately a month later. Remember at the end of his lip synched dance performance at the AMAs he was lifted up in a "Christ position" and then reappeared in between Mayte's legs re-birthed. This was also reinforced by 's speech that he gave after the performance.

NouveauDance said:

I think he was a bit peeved about Letterman having a bit of a rib at his expense before the performance.

if that were true i doubt he would have come back for another appearance (dinner with delores promoting chaos & disorder)

NouveauDance said:

I think he was a bit peeved about Letterman having a bit of a rib at his expense before the performance.