The lost bass line of Prince hit ‘When Doves Cry’
Despite the fact that the renowned 1984 soundtrack for Purple Rain is attributed to Prince and The Revolution, the single ‘When Doves Cry’, was a creation of the prodigy alone. The song achieved the top spot on the US charts, but during the mixing process, the Purple One had an overwhelming sense that something was present when it shouldn’t be. Specifically, the original bass line proved to be somewhat troublesome, and the singer decided it needed to be removed the improve its overall sound.
Although it’s difficult to imagine Prince not striking gold on the first try, ‘When Doves Cry’ became more of an exercise in peeling back than adding in. As Prince’s mix engineer, Susan Rogers, recalled: “The bass is on the multi-track tape, but it was muted in the final mix. It’s interesting listening to this record again, and being reminded of how real genius knows when to show it off and when to just be simple.”
Of course, any idea floated by Prince will never simply be ignored, as proved when he ran it by singer Jill Jones. “I said, ‘If I could have it my way it would sound like this,’ and I pulled the bass out of the mix. She said, ‘Why don’t you have it your way?'”. Ultimately, he remembered who he was and decided to follow his musical instincts. ‘When Doves Cry’ subsequently became one of the only pop hits to not include a bass line, proving that in some cases, less is more.
Prince rarely praised other musicians. In fact, he remained strong in the value of his own artistry. However, ‘When Doves Cry’ did not emerge of its own volition, and the Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks catalysed his creative spark, inspiring the birth of the song altogether.
The connection between the unlikely pairing commenced when Nicks first encountered Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’ playing on the car stereo during a ride with her then-husband Kim Anderson. It was a serendipitous introduction to his music, and she was instantly inspired to craft a song of comparable grandeur, resulting in ‘Stand Back’.
Later, Prince shared how ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ inspired ‘When Doves Cry’, which Nicks says sparked a real camaraderie between the two: “That’s really when he and I started to sort of be friends. From that moment onward at the very end of ‘Edge of Seventeen’, I go, ‘I know what it sounds like, I know what it sounds like, I know what it sounds like when doves cry. It sounds like you.’”
Beyond inspiration and external advice, the song is essentially a solo performance, with Prince handling every instrument without assistance from The Revolution. Once he found his creative flow, there was no slowing him down, and he completed the final mix of the song just two days after initially tinkering with it.
