Dolphin vs. Buddha of Suburbia

Song:  Dolphin
Album:  The Gold Experience
Year:  1995

If I came back as a dolphin
Would you listen to me then?
Would you let me be your friend?
Would you let me in?
You can cut off all my fins
But to your ways I will not bend
I'll die before I let you tell me how to swim
And I'll come back again as a dolphin

The dolphin is a symbol of salvation.  The lyrics to this song use this symbol as a parable, invoking the resurrection to explain to us all what we should already know.  As always, the musicianship is superb if (again, as always) somewhat overproduced.  The lyrics are simple and I suppose some might find them deep and beautiful.  For me, this is Prince at his blandest.  Nothing interesting, shocking, groundbreaking or subversive.

Similarly simple is Billy Bragg's song Dolphins.  The message is similar and the lyrics even more minimal than the Prince track.  However, Billy Bragg manages to convey the lyrics not only through the words, but through the raw and somewhat jarring guitar work.  It's a great example of matching words to music, something Prince does well occasionally (the entire Purple Rain album for example) but seems to have lost track of in his later career.

Verdict:  2/5 stars

Would I sing it at karaoke?  No way.

Song:  Buddha of Suburbia
Album:  The Buddha of Suburbia
Year:  1995

The title track from the soundtrack to a 1993 British TV show, this one grew on me through repeated listenings.  As the name of the track implies, this is a montage of suburban snapshots conveying the ennui and angst of suburban living.  It's a somewhat boring song . . . but Bowie does something interesting near the end.  He throws in the first part of the guitar bridge from Space Oddity and then adds a phrase from All The Madman.  Why?  Well, first off they work.  The guitar lick provides a nice jolt back to the past and any Bowie fan will automatically think "ouvre le chien" when they hear the lyrics "day after day".  This is a nice treat to diehard fans.  But I think it's also a mechanism for the song's narrator to harken back to a time that was perhaps more exciting and fresh as these songs are from Bowie's first two studio albums (Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World).  It puts the song in a whole new light for me and makes me want more.

Verdict:  3.5/5 stars

Would I sing it at karaoke?  No, but now I want to sing All The Madmen.

Winner:  Buddha of Suburbia

Running Score:  Bowie 11, Prince 6