soladeo1 said:

IstenSzek said:

i'd like to know what the op thinks of the song. he/she seemd to anxious and excited to hear it
but i haven't read their comments on it yet -or maybe i overlooked it in another thread.

I was SUPER STOKED to hear the song after it was desribed to me awhile back. When I first heard it - the screams, laughs, manic vocals, crazed drum programming, etc. I smiled... It's one of my favorite songs, no lie. I've been BLASTING IT all over Texas as I drive these past few weeks. Great stuff!!!

that's good to read

OldFriends4Sale said:

Jestyr said:

Is that Sheila on the percussion?

IDK, could be Prince

She did her own (vocal) cover of the song for her next album Sheila E

corrected: A Sheila E album outtake

Princevault says that is a totally different song.

Love and Sex = Lovesexy

For me this song has a strong lovesexy feel to it. It has the same feel for me as the songs lovesexy ,Eye No and Alphabet Street. Maybe this song was the creative child for the lovesexy album?

The upper room in the song = heaven and he is god, right?

[Edited 7/3/17 10:20am]

djThunderfunk said:

Phishanga said:

Linn-Drum in your face, singing-screaming vocals, very intense, he sings "sha-la-lala, sha-la-lala oh" as if his life depended on it.

Why do I keep hearing "sha-la-lala, shia labeouf"?

OMG I am SOOOO glad I am not the only one that hears this!!!!!

[Edited 8/8/17 20:44pm]

He appears to be shouting through the whole song.

I can see why he didn't release it.

Maybe I would've liked it when I was younger.

Yes, amazing track, BIG love from me...

Brilliant, I love this kind of Prince...

It's fantastic. High tempo, frenetic energy, and indeed a glimse of the future of Lovesexy and Batman. It was mostly Linn drum machine and Yamaha DX-7. Prince's first DX-7 workout. Allegedly, he requested the (then) new Yamaha DX-7, got it, then recorded this, essentially turning one of the coldest sounding synths ever into a bubbling lava flow of Funk.

No offense to anyone here, but Love and Sex sound is 100% indicitive of the 82-84 sound, it sounds absolutely nothing like Lovesexy era music. Perhaps folks are simply projecting due to the fact that almost the entire word lovesexy is in the titile of this song?

Love & Sex is my jam!

RodeoSchro said:

leadline said:

3rdEyeUnlimited said:

On repeat since last Friday!! How crazy would "Purple Rain" have been with this closing number instead of IWD4U/BIAS!!

Totally - and not in a good way.

My contribution from another thread ('cause I'm too lazy to write something new):

Lammastide said:

...A Prince romp on par with nearly any from the Purple Rain period, classic Linn programming and all. I can't stop listening to it.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't conflicted about Love and Sex on one front: From the over-the-top intro... to the "Upper Room" references... to the shouted vocals and call-and-response play between Prince and the backing singers, Love and Sex is an unveiled riff on the African American liturgical tradition. (The Upper Room, from Christian literature, is the synagogue chamber in which the Last Supper, several of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost are said to have occurred; elsewhere, as seems the case in this song, the term is used metaphorically as a reference to the Christian afterlife.) I'm not offended by this, but the naked parody -- and the utter tack of a song about a sexual throwdown in heaven -- seems almost too tongue-in-cheek to take seriously... even for Prince. I can see why there was never a project fitting for its release... though it may have worked thematically for performance during the Lovesexy tour.

Regarding the Lovesexy mention: Along with a few other commenters on this thread, I also don't think Love and Sex sounds anything at all like a Lovesexy-era production. The song drips with a 1982-'84 vibe. That said, prior to Lovesexy, Love and Sex does offer perhaps the most pointed juxtaposition of erotic and spiritual ultimacy in a Prince composition, and in that way I do think of it as a sort of thematic precursor at least of the 1988 album.

[Edited 7/4/17 11:49am]

Poplife88 said:

It's a mess...and I can hear why he didn't release it. But its a fuckin awesome purple jam that I have been blasting in the car since last week. So

Ah, finally some good sense. When y'all come down from your Purple Kool-aid high, you'll realize it's nothing but a jam. A really good jam, but it tries to be many things at once.

As for the anything-goes-fuck-the-harmonies-fuck-the-structure, I think "Rebirth Of The Flesh" is a better effort in the same vein, and "In A Large Room With No Light" tops them both: it's an audible and sophisticated mess.

"Love and Sex" tries to be free-jazz, but Zappa he ain't, and Prince, still a young rocker in 1984, has still to grow up musically to offer something everlasting in this department. Another disappointment stems from the title: it's Prince, and the song (the jam!) is called "Love and Sex". I was expecting something exceptional from him, with such a title.

It's good to hear a new outtake, and the spirit is infectious, but musically, it goes nowhere and doesn't have much to say. But I'll have another drink too.