Songfacts®:

• When you see the head of a porpoise, you'll notice the blow hole, which it can open and close. That image served as inspiration for this song, written at a time when two members of the band - lead singer Perry Farrell and guitarist Peter DiStefano - were battling drug addiction.
  
  "I have an endorphin gland that's stuck wide open like a porpoise hole," DiStefano explained to Songfacts. "I needed to start working again so I could sleep and feel a natural pain killer, because I jammed it wide open with heroin. That's part of it and then there's a lot more to the lyrics that Perry has but are sort of personal. But what I get out of it is that my endorphin gland is stuck open and I can't sleep because of drugs."
• The band wrote this song in Tahiti on one of their surf trip (the song "Tahitian Moon" was also written there). They saw dolphins there, but used "porpoise" for the song. Porpoises live in colder waters.
• "Porpoise Head" is part of the second Porno For Pyros album, Good God's Urge. The band fell apart soon after it was released in 1996 largely because Peter DiStefano's drug habit got out of control. Perry Farrell re-formed his band Jane's Addiction in 1997 and announced the end of Porno For Pyros in 1998. DiStefano ended up playing on Scott Weiland's solo album 12 Bar Blues that year and finally got sober around this time. Porno For Pyros regrouped from time to time but didn't release new music until 2023 with "Agua." A year later, they went on their farewell tour.