Love And Sex is a track recorded on 3 January 1986 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California. The mid-tempo song is driven by searing guitar and a whimsical staccato synth, with multi-tracked vocals, with Prince passionately delivering a plea to an unnamed object of affection, but written from a female perspective (“Look at you, out of control with a crazy girl”).
On 25 March 1986, three months after the initial tracking it was re-recorded for possible inclusion on Sheila E.’s third album Sheila E.. For this re-recording the song was faster paced and with a funkier groove. Sheila E. added vocals and congas on it. Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss also adding horns at this time.
The title Love And Sex was previously used for an otherwise-unrelated 1984 recording; see Love And Sex for details of that track. During Prince: A Celebration in June 2000, computer screens at Paisley Park Studios offered names of a selection of tracks which users could vote on for inclusion on Crystal Ball Volume II, and while Love And Sex was chosen by fans, the project was ultimately abandoned. It is unclear if this concerned the 1984 or 1986 song.
In September 2020, Prince’s January ’86 version was released as the twelfth track of Vault Tracks part 1, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition. The faster paced version with Sheila E. singing lead remains unreleased.
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