https://www.rollingstone....s-1068978/

When Doves Cry originally had a 100 piece orchestra?!!!

it’s hard, man. Even the hit records. One time, he said, “I want you to hear something.” So his engineer brought up “When Doves Cry,” with a 100-piece orchestra on it. And I said, “Wait a second, how did you mute all of that and just leave a drum track with vocals?” He said, “Levi, that was one of the hardest decisions of my life.”

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

He said Prince played him a version with a 100 piece orchestra and from that he inferred that it originally had a 100 piece orchestra on it. For all we know this was Prince taking the tapes Clare Fischer sent him and experimenting with the sounds on other tracks, we know he did that all the time.

mrjj71 said:

https://www.rollingstone....s-1068978/

When Doves Cry originally had a 100 piece orchestra?!!!

it’s hard, man. Even the hit records. One time, he said, “I want you to hear something.” So his engineer brought up “When Doves Cry,” with a 100-piece orchestra on it. And I said, “Wait a second, how did you mute all of that and just leave a drum track with vocals?” He said, “Levi, that was one of the hardest decisions of my life.”

He was reported thru the years by Mc Creary & others that the initial take is longer & much produced > additionnal synth & keyboard parts ....guitars ...bass & background vocals + (extra vocal lines?)!!

tab32792 said:

Wendy and Lisa didn't say it so that's neither here nor there.

Can we stop with the baiting...

jaawwnn said:

He said Prince played him a version with a 100 piece orchestra and from that he inferred that it originally had a 100 piece orchestra on it. For all we know this was Prince taking the tapes Clare Fischer sent him and experimenting with the sounds on other tracks, we know he did that all the time.

It's possible I guess as with the intro to Roadhouse garden and the Ladder but it sounds like if it was the 'hardest decision of his life' that it would have been specifically for WDC.

Okay, first of all - how does he know the orchestra was 100 pieces? That would be a full-scale symphony - which seems like an odd thing to do for When Doves Cry. I mean, he was stripping stuff out of that song to give it a bare bones sound.

That said, we know that Prince DID use (parts of) an orchestra for Purple Rain. (The strings arrangement is quite something to listen to on its own.) So who knows?

mrjj71 said:

jaawwnn said:

He said Prince played him a version with a 100 piece orchestra and from that he inferred that it originally had a 100 piece orchestra on it. For all we know this was Prince taking the tapes Clare Fischer sent him and experimenting with the sounds on other tracks, we know he did that all the time.

It's possible I guess as with the intro to Roadhouse garden and the Ladder but it sounds like if it was the 'hardest decision of his life' that it would have been specifically for WDC.

Or half the Batman soundtrack.

I'm gonna chalk that "hardest decision" comment down to Prince's personality, there's a fair few stories of him just nodding along when someone is trying to find out details of his songs, whether it be a girlfriend wondering if it's about them or a journalist opining that X is the best song he ever did.

Speculation of course, but being that I don't think Levi is lying it seems more likely to me than there being an unknown 100 piece orchestra track on the song in 1984 not known by anyone before now.

Jill has said she was around and doesn't describe an orchestrated version.

For the level of interest in these sessions, I feel like people aren't getting really good interviews to clarify things but there are people to ask who are alive. It's not a question of who is credible. Even Magnoli would know about the orchestra sessions to some degree. Then it gets into the possibility Prince tried to re-record or layer on to it later between PR and Levi hearing them. He's the same person that tried to re-record his masters and all that so it's possible he did big orchestrated versions, and then made the big choice if he wanted to release them. Levi heard something.

The news is what we all hope and suspect. The Estate has a lot more they could put out.

When Doves Cry is perfect as it is, the space and sparse nature of the recording is one of the reasons why it works so well IMO

That is also why the live versions don't resonate with me as much (still awesome though don't get me wrong). The Birthday Show '84 version is in my opinion the live version that comes closest to capturing a similar vibe


When Doves Cry doesn't need to be a grand gesture of sonics, rather it works as an intimate approach to the intimate nature of the expressed emotion

[Edited 10/2/20 15:08pm]