Album: Purple Rain (1984)

Charted: 4 1

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• 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
  
  How can you just leave me standing?
  Alone in a world that's so cold? (A world that's so cold)
  Maybe I'm just too demanding (maybe, maybe I'm like my father)
  Maybe I'm just like my father too bold (you know he's too bold)
  Maybe you're just like my mother (maybe you're just like my mother)
  She's never satisfied (she's never, never satisfied)
  Why do we scream at each other? (Why do we scream? Why?)
  This is what it sounds like
  
  When doves cry
  When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)
  When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)
  
  Don't cry (don't cry)
  
  When doves cry
  When doves cry
  When doves cry
  
  When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry, doves cry)
  Don't cry
  Darling don't cry
  Don't cry
  Don't cry
  Don't, don't cry Writer/s: Prince Rogers Nelson
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 25

• Nurse Noe from Earth... Allegedly!I could be wrong, but I thought that MC Hammer's money fall came from trying to employ basically, his whole hometown. I thought that this was always spoken of. He wanted to help and share his prosperity by employing people. That was a LOT if people. I don't know if there was any impropriety in any accounting theft, as has happened--SADLY--to multiple famous and beloved human beings.
• Piper from San Franciscothis is what it sounds like when doves fly, is the anthesis of feelings and conversion, Prince is an original and really missed in history 2021. we live a revived world and that includes music, peace
• Annabelle from Eugene, OrI've always wondered what it would sound like with the bass line on there. I wonder if there's a version that has the original bass line that Prince had in mind. If so, I'd love to hear what it sounds like!
• Annabelle from Eugene, OrTo Marc from London, I've listened very carefully to this song, and as I am an audio engineer who's ears are trained to pick out specific instruments, I can't hear a single bass note in this song. Only drum machine, guitar, and voices. By the way, London is in the United Kingdom, not China!
• Andie from CtWhen doves cry is a metaphor for peace being broken. Doves symbolize peace, when people fight with each other they disturb peace. That’s why the doves cry.
  
  It’s interesting how someone else commented that screaming people sound like screaming birds; you can’t hear anything but shouts when people shout at each other.
  
  Prince was so brilliant. RIP.
• Xochi from OaklandWhen Doves Cry is NOT his musical refuge. This was a long ass article with truths but not about the song. He wrote it while he was seeking refuge from his parents arguments and fights. Sam from Nawlins, got it.
• Kim from Sparks, NvI really love this song I seem to relate to it. Prince is a great singer and the music to the song is incredible.
• Megan from Stevenson, AlDANG! This is a GREAT song! Gahhh...Prince can do nothing wrong! Makes me wanna sing along EVERYTIME!
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyPrince had help keeping Bruce from reaching #1; "The Reflex" by Duran Duran also topped the chart above "Dancing in the Dark" while it was struck at #2 for four weeks...
• Kane from Wytheville, Vajoe buden also redid for "when thugs cry" which is about raising his son
• Sam from New Orleans, LaWhen Doves Cry is not about doves actually crying tears; it is a metaphor of the sound of two people screaming at each other. Ever noticed two people arguing from afar and all you can hear is screaming? Or have you ever seen a flock of birds flying and all of them are making that 'caw caw' sound that's so annoying? That's the feeling or rather sound he was trying to make a comparison to. The lyrics says "Why do we scream at each other? This is what it sounds like when doves cry."
• Ma_cherie from Little Rock, ArInteresting thoughts, Geo from MA.
• Marc from London, ChinaI think the 'no bass' thing may turn out to be an urban myth. Listen carefully and you can hear a sort of acoustic sounding bass throughout the track.
• David from Youngstown, OhDimitri,
  That is an hysterical comment about tear ducts. Great sense of humor!
• Elisa from Decatur, AlTo Eddie in Cleveland, Ohio, the movie never says if his father died or not, it just shows him in the bed with a bandage around his head with his Mother crying over him.
• Geo from Worcester, Mathe way i see it, the concept of making a dove cry is similar to the concept "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (from the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird") -- this being that mockingbird's don't hurt anything, therefore it's a sin to kill one. similarly, it's a terrible thing to make doves, who are all about peace, cry.
  Prince seems to be refering to himself as a dove (all about peace and love, and not harming anything). this is the most obvious in the line "don't make me chase you/ even doves have pride".
  the chorus seems to be saying (to a lover, perhaps?) essentially "why are we fighting like this when all i want is love and peace? our fighting is one of the worst things in the world to me, i feel like it's similar to if a dove could cry"
  just a couple thoughts
• Erin from Vancouver, CanadaThis song is so ironic, doves are a symbol of peace, happiness and joy. For a dove to cry would mean that things are in a terrible state.
  The song is about a relationship that didn't work out, a relationship similar to his parents relationship. He is comparing himself and his lover to his parents. Its also about being abandoned, and left alone in the world.
• Eddie from Cleveland, OhThe title of the song "When Doves Cry" is symbolic. When somebody dreams of a dove crying, it means that your father is going to die. In the movie "Purple Rain," The Kid's father kills himself, hence the title of the song.
• Dimitri from Oklahoma, KsPretty stupid song. I've never heard doves cry? Birds dont have tear ducts? randomest song title ever.
• Jolene from Melbourne, AustraliaWow, can't believe he wrote it in 2 hours. I always took this song to be about being abandoned "how can you just leave me standing, alone in a world thats so cold."
• Kenny from Toronto, CanadaA Canadian rock band called The Pursuit of Happiness covered this song for their 2005 greatest hits disc. Ironically the band started up in the eighties around the same time the original was released.
• Ken from Louisville, KyThe story is that the director of "Purple Rain" decided that a song was needed for the domestic abuse scene and asked Prince to come up with one (all other songs in the movie were already written and recorded). Prince wrote and recorded "When Doves Cry" in a less than two hours, entirely by himself. This was the only song on the soundtrack to be credited to "Prince" instead of "Prince and the Revolution"
• Aj from Cleveland, GaMC Hammer did this too... weird.
• Stephanie from Glen Rock, PaThe winner of the first Australian Idol competition, Guy Sebastian, included a cover of this on his debut album.
• John from Lawrenceville, GaThis song was also used in the movie "Romeo and Juliet".

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