Definately one of Prince's greatest songs and definately one if not his most popular song "When Doves Cry" wouldn't have came to be if it wasn't for the film "Purple Rain". I say this because it was written at the request of the film's producers. P had recorded many songs for the film and played them all to the producers. They said that they were all good of course, but they didn't hear a hit! Something to tie up what the film was about was needed. A song to jump start the movie. So, P went away and came back with one of his most defining songs of his entire career. He came back with one of the most creative songs to ever be played on the radio. He came back with a song that sounded NOTHING like anything before or since. He came back with a song that, when first released, was played sometimes twice an hour on the hour on radio staions all over the country. He came back with a song that shot to #1 and stayed there. All this BEFORE the film was ever released. He came back with a song that truly showed, once and for all, that in 1984, Prince was super talented. That in 1984, Prince was the most gifted. That in 1984, Prince was something else. It's a trip to think that one of Prince's greatest songs wouldn't have never came about if the producers of a film hadn't told Prince "We don't hear a hit." Well, he came back and brought them and himself, a hit.

It would be hard to imagine my childhood without "When Doves Cry" Whenever I'd hear the opening guitar solo to this song on the radio...it would give me an excited feeling in my stomach. I just NEEDED to crank this! Music rarely excites me like that anymore...I don't know if it is just getting older, or music just isn't this orginal anymore, or what but this song would just pull me into the song and get lost in the story and sounds.

I even remember my father being into this song and singing in when he was drunk..and he was not a Prince fan at ALL...and for this song to reach someone like him and hit something deep inside was very telling.

Krystal666 said:[quote Music rarely excites me like that anymore...I don't know if it is just getting older, or music just isn't this orginal anymore, or what but this song would just pull me into the song and get lost in the story and sounds.[/quote]
Ahhh....except for my music.

blackguitaristz said:

Ahhh....except for my music.[/quote]

Well ofcourse! The most engrossing is " Flee from your circle"

Krystal666 said:

Although "Royalty" starts off with a backwards guitar solo like "Doves". Although I didn't connect the two untill sometime after I recorded it. Strange.

I feel sorry for children who weren't yet born when this song was first released. I was in early high school when this came out. This song was truly the soundtrack of my life at that time. It mirrored what was happening to me. Other kids associated the song with me. For one reason, at my high school at that time, it was very few black kids. And it wasn't any one, black or white, that played guitar and dressed and wore their hair like Hendrix/Dez. So, I always got that link with Prince even BEFORE this song came out. Also, I was dating this girl and we had a "high drama" relationship. So, many kids at the school, some who didn't even know us personally, would tell us, "God, this song reminds me of you guys." We both would hear this. It was the strangest thing. But as someone who had been championing Prince to all of my friends for a few years already, felt vindication. I was like "See,..I told ya'll he was BAD!!". I WORE the 45 and then the 12' OUT, learning the guitar intro and the solo. I must have made my mother sick playing and replaying that song, over and over on my guitar. This song changed the atmosphere whenever it was played in public. No matter where u were. Whenever it was played. Be it in someone's car (which was many) it literally would change the atmosphere. It was like magic. That still existed in 1984. And people responded to this song in a big way. U had to see it to truly relate to it.

blackguitaristz said:

Deep! Genuine totally degraded this song btw. He totally took the energy and the feeling out of this song. I hated hearing such a powerful peice of origionality made into money for a lukewarm R&B singer.

I don't like the cover either. I heard that P saw him in a club at told him that he didn't like him covering the song!

blackguitaristz said:

I feel you bro!....When that song dropped I was in the 11th grade myself. The first time I heard it, I wasnt really sure of what I'd just heard, it was just THAT different! It was yrs before I realized that the bass line was non-existent..and the drum programming was light yrs ahead of its time as Timbaland only caught up to it in the mid 90's....Pop culture's number one Prince song...but oddly enough its not the favorite song of most Prince fans...including myself...

Yeah the story behind the song's creation blew me away the first time I heard it.

They tell Prince that they want a song for this particular part of the movie... the next day he comes back with "When Doves Cry". That really shows his brilliance, being able to write a song just like that :snaps finger:.

It is unlike anything else he's ever done. Whenever I listen to it, its like a breath of fresh air. It was so well put together.
Even more amazing is that it supposedly had a bassline that Prince decided to take out... another brilliant move on his part.

I love the lengthy instrumentals that he used after halfway thru it...
hands down one of his most genius works and the most unique song he's ever written.

i absolutely fell in love with that song... its so raw and you can definetly feel the pain he goes through. its like he channels his emotion though the song. and the guitar solo.... omg- its like the guitar becomes a part of him. amazing.

the fact that he wrote it so quickly is truly a testament to his talent.
[Edited 4/29/07 20:09pm]

My all time favorite song (well it ties with Controversy when I'm in a funky mood lol). I'll never forget how this opened the door to my Prince fandom. The first time i listened to Prince was when i was going through my dad's cds and came across the very best of prince. The first 3 songs I liked, but didn't impress me at first (they grew on me of course), but when i put the cd player on track 4 and listened to this song, i was hooked for life. This song amazed me, I was really blown away by it.

MajesticOne89 said:

Yeah, I like my copy of "The Very Best of..." but the one fault I find in it is that they cut "When Doves Cry" in half... the song has to be heard at its full length of ~6 minutes... the instrumentals make it as great as it is.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

After hearing the original version of WDC, I was confused as to why they would cut the instrumental part out of that song, if anything they could've taken the last 2 minutes out of Purple Rain.

MajesticOne89 said:

There was a song or two they could have cut.
I wanna be ur lover & Alphabet St. are 2 oddballs cuz they're the only one of their kind in the set... and I really can't stand Alphabet St.

I don't approve of cutting songs, especially not ones notable for their instrumental work. I'm glad that PR wasn't tampered with, although I do own the song on the album, haha

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Well I'm not really a fan of PR's crowd applausing and they could've fit another song if they cut that off and some from a couple others. but that's "best of" albums for you

MajesticOne89 said:

Yeah, they're not true albums, so they're not perfect.
I still think it was a cool investment, though. It gave me more to go on with the progression of Prince's music, even if its on a small scale. I listen to it a lot.

Regarding Prince's music, though, I feel like "When Doves Cry" is in a class by itself. If I had to list my favorite 10 Prince songs, it'd be there somewhere.

Yeah, they're not true albums, so they're not perfect.
I still think it was a cool investment, though. It gave me more to go on with the progression of Prince's music, even if its on a small scale. I listen to it a lot.

Regarding Prince's music, though, I feel like "When Doves Cry" is in a class by itself. If I had to list my favorite 10 Prince songs, it'd be there somewhere.[/quote]

Actually after listening to just "the very best of" for a couple weeks, I branched out and bought each album that each of the songs belogned to. I'll never forget this one day, I went out to by 1999 (keep in mind i only knew the albums to which the songs on TVBO belonged to) and then i see Dirty Mind and Controversy and i'm like "what the hell is this???" Let me tell you... going from the very best of prince to Dirty Mind and Controversy is a HUGE leap Controversy became my favorite prince song for a while, but the When Doves Cry reclaimed that throne after i got better at guitar and improvised along with it

MajesticOne89 said:

Interesting. My all time fave Prince song, as much as I adore Doves, is Controversy. When Doves is closely behind.

LexNevermind said:

Yes. P was definately ahead of his time in 1984. The first few times I first heard it, I would ALWAYS be in the car and the song would have already been playing. See what I'm saying. I would either be in the car with my girlfriend or some friends of mine and I would catch the song halfway through. I would be like "Wait a minute! Hold up! That's Prince." And they would be like "Nah, that's not him." And I'll be like "Hell yeah it is. What are you deaf? Of course that's Prince." And then they'll go "But it doesn't even sound like him. It sounds soooo different from him." "Nah, it's definately him." I KNEW it was Prince because, one, it FELT like Prince. Two, I could tell by his vocals. Most thought because his vocals were in a much lower register than he had ever done up to that point, he had showcased that in concert on the 1999 tours. Plus, his backing vocals and harmonies are pure Prince and his screams. Who in the hell else could that be?! Then the first time I caught the whole song on the radio (mind u, the single hadn't been released yet nor the premire of the video on MTV) and I heard the guitar intro, it spoke to me in a way that only Hendrix had before. It spoke to the most natural, deepest part of my soul. It spoke to who I was.

MajesticOne89 said:

Interesting story you got there...
The first two things I bought were "The Very Best of..." and Musicology. Musicology did nothing for me, in fact it saddened me cuz I wasn't thrilled with it (now I love it, haha)... I got the mix so I could save money... and yet, I'm going to get 1999, D&P, ATWIAD and SOTT anyway...
Dirty Mind & Controversy are probably among the last albums I pick up, they're not even on my priority list that's 8 albums long... but people keep tearing into me about them. Most likely if I get them, I'll kick myself for not getting them sooner cuz they'll blow me away. It wouldn't be the first time Prince has done that for me.

DreamyPopRoyalty said:

Nicely put. Yeah, the song is a bonafide pop masterpiece. Period. With the bass being out, it makes everything else in the track just hop out.

What's ironic is that hardly nobody but P dug the song. Matt tells the tale of how he and Bobby were riding in P's car and P slipped in the song. Matt says he and Bobby just looke dat each other, kinda shaking their heads. Then Matt says "But there's no bass." They didn't like the song. Warners definately didn't like the song. Not only they didn't want it as a single, but they didn't even want it on the album. They hated the song. They thought it was too different and that it would alienate P's fanbase. Man, were they wrong. Goes to show that many major labels don't know shit about music. It's a credit to P and his confidence in himself that he KNEW, regardless of what two of his band members had to say. And granted, these two, Bobby and Matt, had been with P from the very beginning and even they thought the song was a mistake. Man, what a great feeling P must have had when this song became , hands down, the biggest song of that year. And one of the biggest songs of that decade. U know he was like "To Warners, to my band, I told ya'll." Warners was so fucking stupid that they even doubted P again when it came to the single "Kiss". They hated that song too and thought no way is this a single. Again they were wrong, giving P another #! song.

blackguitaristz said:

Whoa... this really proves to me that Prince lives for the music and the music lives in him. It flows thru him like his life energy (chi, if you will). I've always believed that, even before I knew much about him.

I guess this is one of those rare occasions where the search for commercialism sparked a real creative result.

i honestly believe if it wasn't this song it would've been another...doves was just the first time the world "caught up with him" so2speak



not2belittle the song tho


pure perfection

SirPsycho said:

come 2 think of it...i'm sure that wasn't the first time, but u kno what i'm gettin at

SirPsycho said:

Yeah, I know. If not "when doves cry" that speck of creativity could have turned into a completely different song and it would have taken the musical world by storm the way "doves" did.
This song is one of those cases where I didn't like it the first time I heard it. I just saw the video for "Little Red Corvette" and was wowed by it. Coming off that, this song was so different that I was like... I don't get it.

But the song kept coming back to mind, so I watched the video a few more times and slowly started to appreciate it. I don't think I liked it at first because it didn't have that typical 80's sound that I like... but it's so completely different from that in a good way. Instrumentals alone make the song incredible.

A sparkling gem unlike any other and there'll never be anything else like it.

LexNevermind said:

well the kids over the years have heard this song (been teaching since the 80's) and i don't how many have felt like this, but i do know the song is well-liked ... it's a cool intro into his catalogue for some ...my kids like the song and they are not teens yet...i'm waiting for it to be played on oldies stations since some are including tunes from the 80's ... this is one of the songs i reference when i'm asked which instrument i prefer him to play piano or guitar, i respond "his voice"