With a few exceptions, the prevaiing harmonic progression in “When Doves Cry” is:
i bVII
What is odd is that there doesn’t seem to be a chordal instrument that fleshes out much harmony. The predominant timbre is the bass and the spectrum of the snare. The synth harpsichord vamps occasionally but doesn’t really help us out with this harmonic ambiguity. But then the harmonic sparsity is exactly what we love about Prince.
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