Live 4 Love (full title in the booklet Live 4 Love (Last Words From The Cockpit)) is the 13th and final track on Prince’s 13th album Diamonds And Pearls, the first album to be credited to Prince and the New Power Generation.
In 1993, the track was included as the b-side of The Morning Papers, the fifth and final single from Prince’s 14th album .
In 2001, a 1992 live version was released as a video and audio download as part of NPG Music Club Edition # 10.
A December 1990 'Early version' of Live 4 Love containing lyrics from The Flow was released on streaming platforms on 28 September 2023 as a preview for the Diamonds And Pearls Super Deluxe Edition, where it was featured as the ninth track of Vault Tracks part 1, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the box-set.
Original tracking of this song was at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, Minnesota, most likely on 20 November 1990 after midnight, continuing the session tracking Diamonds And Pearls.
The original recording was over 7 and a half minutes long, and did not yet feature Tony M.’s rap. Instead Prince rapped the lyrics to pre-existing The Flow (recorded as a stand alone track on 11 September 1990). It even includes the bassline, from the released 1992 version of The Flow, here, that wasn’t yet on the 1990 version of that song.
An edit of this version, made its way to the 27 November 1990 configuration of Diamonds And Pearls as the tenth track.
The song was worked on further in early December and this full 7:30 ‘Early Version’ with Prince’s The Flow rap was featured on the early December 1990 configuration of the Diamonds And Pearls album.
After further work and replacing the The Flow rap with something Tony M. came up with specifically for the song, it became the final track on a January 1991 configuration. It continued its life as the last track on the subsequent 1 March 1991 and 8 May 1991 configurations, and remained there for the released version of the album.
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