The opening sounds a little like the opening for “Station to Station”. This song is significant for me because I used translated the lyrics into Latin for extra credit back in 11th grade. I chose it because the lyrics are extremely simple. “I will be king!” ... “Rex erit!”
I am annoyed that the singer (and Bowie himself in some live concerts) reverse the verses. I always thought that dolphin business was lame. Oh well, keep it under 6:00 minutes.
Heroes was not initially well-received when it was released, but grew in stature over time. I like Fripp’s work on the hit “Scary Monsters” as well. His Frippertronics stuff is either Fripp going on a pseudo-existentialist nihilist bender, or an in joke I never quite got, but “Under Heavy Manners” is always good for a chuckle.
Re: Dolphins. There is an excellent website that breaks down "Heroes" in fantastic detail. It turns out the dolphins line is actually brilliant.
Where the lyric of “Station to Station” had been a profusion of imagery hauled out of Bowie’s inventory of obsessions, “Heroes” is far more minimal, its words simple and precisely chosen. Bowie drew from two main sources, both European, both postwar(s). One was the short story “A Grave For A Dolphin” by the Italian aristocrat Alberto Denti Di Pirajno, which details a doomed affair between an Italian soldier and an Somalian girl during the Second World War (it inspired the “dolphins can swim” verse).