Pardon my naïeveté, but it just stroke me :
"Dolphin" may be the apex of the WW at its most spiritual,

but it's not as "Peace and Love" as the verses would like us to believe.

In the chorus, it's a pretty violent song :

You can cut off all my fins but 2 your wayz I will not bend

The final mix option is a statement in itself: Dolphin is made to be blasted to 11.
Otherwise you just get the softness.
It's the rage behind (those guitars! Those backing vocals!) that propels it.


Dolphin, as in "Acknowledge me WB, I'm the greatest since Elvis, I'm the heir of the King".


Dolphin, as opposed to a Shark.
Imagine being a Warner executive listening to Dolphin for the first time, back in 1995.


I'll die B4 I let U tell me how 2 swim


Indeed you did, Skipper.


In a parallel world, "Dolphin" has been released as the first album single, on vinyl,
and its B-side is "The Exodus Has Begun".
Now that's cohesion.

Amazing song, amazing video (1 take),

and also, a seriously amazing album.

the maximum rate from me...

it sort of was the second single, after tmbgitw. there was a video and it was shipped

to a few radiostations at least (they premiered here in holland iirc).

seriously good song and vid. it's never left my personal top 10 prince songs since 94.

it was inspired by betty j eadie's 'embraced by the light', no? mixed with the wb stuff
going on at the time. pretty great songwriting.

gonna listen to it again, for probably the 2970th time.

bonatoc said:

Pardon my naïeveté, but it just stroke me :
"Dolphin" may be the apex of the WW at its most spiritual,

but it's not as "Peace and Love" as the verses would like us to believe.

In the chorus, it's a pretty violent song :

You can cut off all my fins but 2 your wayz I will not bend

The final mix option is a statement in itself: Dolphin is made to be blasted to 11.
Otherwise you just get the softness.
It's the rage behind (those guitars! Those backing vocals!) that propels it.


Dolphin, as in "Acknowledge me WB, I'm the greatest since Elvis, I'm the heir of the King".


Dolphin, as opposed to a Shark.
Imagine being a Warner executive listening to Dolphin for the first time, back in 1995.


I'll die B4 I let U tell me how 2 swim


Indeed you did, Skipper.


In a parallel world, "Dolphin" has been released as the first album single, on vinyl,
and its B-side is "The Exodus Has Begun".
Now that's cohesion.

:smh: What is WW?

Dolphin is about "Prince"'s 1993 death and the birth of . The narrative is symbolism -- "cutting off all my fins" and "tell me how to swim" are metaphors, he's talking about limiting his productivity.

Guitar solo always gives me goosebumps...

^ Agreed.

That solo is a Dolphin escaping it's captors.

Have you seen him perform it? The song is really deep.

Hence my name and love for marine life.. Dolphin was definitely one of my favorite songs of his.. His use of actual dolphin vocalizations in the song was pretty cool. I was lucky enough to tell him that and having him say he appreciated the kind words was even more special.

I love Dolphin, always have since first seeing the video on VH1. Surprised at the love it's getting here, in gold experience threads it's often mentioned as one track people don't like so much.

I´m surprised that you, as a Frenchman, didn´t mention the dolphin/dauphin meaning.

But yeah, the song has some nice metaphors. I liked it back then and I still do.

It is one of the highlights of the wonderful Gold album I think it was mostly overlooked as a song that should have been a hit, but it should have. While it was deep, it also was catchy enough to be a hit. I just introduced my 10 year old twins to it (I have to be selective in which ones to share with them!), and they got into it. After all, who wouldn't to be like a free dolphin, metaphorically or for real!

always loved this song

This song is powerful. The Gold Experience album, to me, is packed with energy and this song is so good. I recently saw the Dolphin video and the last scene when Mayte lays him down and the lights go out and it appears as if he has passed on to the other side... That part makes me so sad now.

EnDoRpHn said:

:smh: What is WW?

Dolphin is about "Prince"'s 1993 death and the birth of . The narrative is symbolism -- "cutting off all my fins" and "tell me how to swim" are metaphors, he's talking about limiting his productivity.

The Warner Wars.

"I"ll come back again". He probably had a countdown in his head, he knew that he would regain ownership of his work by the end of the century.

¿Prince esta muerto?, TAFKAP, that pompadoured heavy mascara "Prince" died as well: The extravaganza, Tora Tora, The Undertaker, The Truth, all these years produced a universe very detached from everything he did before, or after. With the Ah dio shows, 1-800-NEWFUNK, it was a Prince utterly determined to be himself no matter what, and fiercely proving he had enough material to literally fill the airwaves.

I can think of another 100 "artists" that would have gladly taken the 100 000 000 pieces of silver instead. Cabbage Head, but Hero nonetheless.