"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Music Tuesday: “When Doves Cry” by Prince

I’m sure everyone by now has heard that the pop music star Prince Rogers Nelson, commonly known as simply, Prince, passed away a week and a half ago on April 21.  Actually it was the same day my beloved uncle Val passed away as well, but that’s another story.  I’m not going to do a full blown retrospective post on Prince.  I don’t have the time and frankly I don’t know the depth of his music well.  I have a greatest hits collection, and I do think highly of a number of his songs.  Even though he’s a flashy, over the top showman, he really was very talented, both as a virtuoso and a song composer. 

The Washington Post had a fine obituary:

Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, the trailblazing performer sold more than 100 million records over his career, fusing rock, pop, funk and R&B and demonstrating an audacious, idiosyncratic sense of style and a willingness to court controversy. A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he won seven Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for original song score for the 1984 film “Purple Rain.”

Prince married twice, first to his backup singer and dancer Mayte Garcia in 1996, then again to Manuela Testolini in 2001. He had a son with Garcia; the boy died a week after birth. Before, between and after his marriages, he was romantically linked to many celebrities and musical collaborators, including Madonna and Kim Basinger.

A highly prolific and restless artist who blended androgynous sexuality with impeccable pop craftsmanship, Prince released more than three dozen albums over his four-decade career. He scored more than 50 Top 40 hits around the world since 1979, including such songs as “When Doves Cry,” “1999,” “Little Red Corvette” and “Raspberry Beret.”

Drawn to music from a young age, in part as a way to escape a turbulent home life, he wrote his first song on his father's piano when he was just 7 years old.

I do want to highlight this one song because it’s been one of my all-time favorite songs from the day it was released.  Sometimes you get tired of hearing a song after a while, even though it might be a great song, but I never get tired of listening to “When Doves Cry.”  


First listen to the song.





If you read the Wikipedia entry for the song, it says that Spin magazine ranked “When Doves Cry” as the “sixth greatest single of all time.”  Wow, that’s some accolade.  You know what, I don’t know about sixth but it’s up there as the greatest pop-rock song of all time.  Why do I think that?  (1) The layered melody is just outstanding, (2) the instrumentation is excellent, and Prince played all the instruments himself, (3) the lyrics are not only poetic and fascinating but have a psychological depth you just don’t find in a pop song, and (4) the syncopated rhythm just consumes the listener.  And it all works together, the melody and rhythm and instrumentation work into the narrative conflict between the singer and his lover, layered with the psychological transference of his parent’s personalities.    

Here are the first two stanzas of the lyrics to this great song:

Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling
Can you picture this?

Dream if you can a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and you

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold? (So cold)
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

Touch if you will my stomach
Feel how it trembles inside
You've got the butterflies all tied up
Don't make me chase you
Even doves have pride

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a world so cold? (World so cold)
Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

Read the rest of the lyrics at| MetroLyrics



Talented, bold, unafraid, it’s a shame Prince died so young.  He wrote and played jazz, pop, gospel, dance, blues, rock.  He wrote music for the great jazz trumpet player, Miles Davis.  He was comfortable and exquisite in all musical forms.  May he rest in peace.  


4 comments:

  1. Well, may he rest in peace, but I really don't understand what all the fuss was about. Never was a fan, and I really don't like that Doves song.

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    1. I guess you don't like syncopated music, which is understandable. I believe that Catholic Church music is supposed to avoid any syncopation. I could be wrong, but I know there are criteria for music at Catholic Mass. "When Doves Cry" is very syncopated.

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  2. I must admit I never bought, or heard, any of his songs. Some singers have a great following for some reason or other. Don't know why.

    God bless.

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    1. Really, you've never heard a Prince song? Perhaps he's not as big in Britain as here. He was very big here in the US.

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