When Doves Cry

In the summers, my brother and I would usually spend at least a week with my dad’s folks at their house. We loved visiting our grandparents, because we got to go out to eat every day at lunch, and at night our Nanny would provide us with amazing Cajun home cooking. They had way better cable than we had at our house, including all the movie channels. We got to watch many more R-rated movies than we could at home.

Briefly, they even had a subscription to the Playboy channel. Unscrambled. I’m sure it was error of some kind. What an education we had.

My grandparents’ house in Deer Park, Texas is where my brother and I first started playing tennis. It’s where my Papaw would take me to the library to check out every Encyclopedia Brown book I could get my hands on. And there was a playground at the end of the street we could walk up to anytime we wanted.

One of the kids we met there lived right by the playground, and we’d hang out at his house sometimes. I remember he had an Atari 400 computer with Jumpman on it. At the time, that was the best video game I’d seen outside of an arcade.

In the living room of his house, with his babysitter sitting there talking on the phone with her boyfriend, is where I first saw Prince’s “When Doves Cry” video. At the time, I can honestly say that absolutely nothing about it seemed weird to me. I was just riveted at how cool he looked on his purple motorcycle. And stressed out watching him break up a violent fight between his parents. What I remember most is how much better it looked than almost every video on MTV.

Watching it as an adult, I appreciate how deeply transgressive the opening scene of this video was for its time. A beautiful naked man getting out of a bathtub holding his hand out to the viewer, inviting you into everything that follows. Also weird: when the movie part ends and suddenly a door opens, and a dove flies into the room where a man in scrubs and sunglasses is about to play keyboards. And they all jam out in their incredibly fine costumes.

Go back and watch it again. Keyboardist Dr. Fink is just as surprised as we are at what’s about to go down.

But as a kid, I didn’t even blink at that shit. When you’re 10 years old and you watch MTV all the time, you’re not surprised by anything that shows up on the screen.

Now, every time I hear this song, I’m impressed at how it doesn’t seem dated at all. The insane opening guitar solo, the insistent keyboards, the menacing synth drones, Prince in ‘84 still sounds like music from another planet.

And the lyrics: musing on your parents, wondering what parts of them have become a part of you. Trying to figure out whether their past is your future. Afraid that the animal instinct to find a partner is just repeating a self-destructive pattern. Prince goes deep, y’all.

“Hey Ya” from Outkast covers similar ground. We’ll hit that later.

Fave Lyrics:

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