From: http://www.thelastmiles.c...-leeds.php

Erix Leeds says: "It was a song of Wendy and Lisa's and it's known by various titles [including] "Welcome To The Rat Race," but was actually called "Life Is Like Looking For A Penny In A Large Room With No Light,"

Strangely enough it's not registered at ASCAP even though it was released last summer...

?????

Not that you asked, but here is a little background on the creation of this track:

---
It was May of 1986 and Prince was going thru a period of renewal and change. Parade, his latest album was just released to good reviews and the first single, KISS, was #1 on the charts. At #2 was The Bangles MANIC MONDAY, which was also written by Prince, so he his professional life was going well. The second single, MOUNTAINS, was about to be released, and the world was waiting for his 2nd movie, “Under The Cherry Moon”. Not one to ever rest on his laurels, Prince had already begun creating his next project. The previous weeks had him holed up in Minneapolis, where he was recording a great deal and trying not to focus on the demise of his relationship with Susannah Melvoin. She had recently moved out of his home in Minneapolis and he decided to fly to Los Angeles and bury himself in his recording.

Saturday, May 3, 1986
Studio 3, Sunset Sound, Los Angeles

Prince asked his engineer Coke Johnson to set up the studio for a new batch of recordings. Because the Revolution was rehearsing and touring together during much of this period, they were invited into the studio.

Coke arrived at the studio at 11:30 and began the set up for a band recording, but it wasn’t until 4 that people started showing up. During group jams, it wasn't uncommon for Prince and whoever was invited in the studio to just groove and record the entire session. Sometimes Prince would be inspired, sometimes he would hear something amazing and that would dictate the direction of the session. It was not an exact science and sometimes people got left off of credits, depending on Prince's mood and generosity. On other occasions, a familiar song would come up in the groove and everyone would start focusing on recording a cover of that song. On this day, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Sheila E., Levi Seacer Jr., Eric Leeds, and Matt Blistan joined Prince to work on the classic song “Get On Up” by The Esquires (from their 1967 release on Bunky Records). After laying down the familiar jam, Prince led them into recording a new jazz-fusion song called “In A Large Room With No Light” (sometimes inaccurately referred to as “Welcome 2 The Ratrace”). The song was based on a jam by Wendy and Lisa.

Eric Leeds remembered this session:
“We also did … another song that Wendy and Lisa...we recorded live with Wendy and Lisa. I cannot remember whether Levi was there, I want to believe he was. Sheila played drums, the vocals, the background vocals were done by Sheila and Wendy and Lisa. Susannah might have been there but I don't remember. The horns were myself, Matt Blisston, and Norbert Stachel, who was Sheila's saxophone player by now, Eddie M having left. He was there for that session, playing alto sax, for a song called "Have you ever felt that love was like looking for a penny in a large room with no light”. It is like....Prince does Fifth Dimension. It was one of my favorite songs we ever did. It was an absolutely wonderful performance live, Sheila just absolutely kicked butt on it, it was just a great song, and unlike anything Prince has ever done. Very unique song, and a great song. It was another one of those cases where I thought, just really felt that we were part of something special on that one. And that's a song that I really hope sees the light of day some time, personally."

The recordings took place until midnight.

Sunday, May 4, 1986
Studio 3, Sunset Sound

Prince asked various members of the Revolution to show up for overdubs for yesterday’s session. Prince also included Sheila’s band member, Norbert Stachel to record various saxophone overdubs. From 3pm to midnight, additional layers were added to GET ON UP and to IN A LARGE ROOM WITH NO LIGHT. Prince and Coke spent the next 5 hours mixing the tracks.

At 5 in the morning, Prince realized the mixes were missing some additional vocals so he spent the next 7 hours adding his vocals as well as other background vocals to the tracks. If you listen closely to LARGE ROOM, you can hear the layered vocals behind the busy track.

Monday, May 5, 1986
Studio 3, Sunset Sound

The session didn’t stop. It was not uncommon for Prince to continue for hours at a time if he felt like he had a mission. This was one of those instances. From noon to 2:30 pm, Prince spent the time mixing the new vocals into the song and copying them on to cassette (2 TDK C-60 tapes).

Prince left the studio for a short time but soon afterwards, asked to be set up for some additional mixing. Apparently he wasn’t completely happy with the songs once he played them in the car and wanted to continue working on them. Although Coke set up for the next session, Susan Rogers was called in to take over for Coke now that he had been in the studio for over 24 hours straight.

Prince showed back up just after 8pm and he and Susan spent the next 5 hours working on crossfades and edits in the tracks.

Prince would continue to tweak the track over the next few days, eventually adding it to the collection he was compiling called “Dream Factory” but that is another story for another day.

- this information is from an early draft of PRINCE: The Studio Sessions.

databank said:

Released last summer - as in.....?

Swa

More info...

madhouseman said:


http://prince.org/msg/7/269370

squirrelgrease said:

OH MY GOD!!!! I NEED THAT BOOK!!! I googled it but it seems it hasn't been released yet or even maybe canceled. Pleaaaaase tell me, where did you find this excerpt????

& thanks for pasting it, too

databank said:

I guess the book is not a priority for madhouseman at the moment, but it does look like it would be a great read if/when it sees the light of day.

OH MY GOD!!!! I NEED THAT BOOK!!! I googled it but it seems it hasn't been released yet or even maybe canceled.

databank said:

My order on amazon have been on hold for a long time. Dispatch date was once set to the end of the last year but postoponed again. Then, I recently received a mail from amazon. It tells me the new date. It's set to October in this year.

The madhouseman book is not completed yet, as far as I know.

You may be referring to this book by another author (which seems to be on indefinite hold):

Prince in the Studio, Vol. 1 (1975-1995)
Author: Jake Brown
Format: Paperback: 184 pages.

squirrelgrease said:

Well, that's the one that came to my mind. I didn't know they were different. I was wondering how madhouseman had snippet of the content of Prince in the Studio, Vol. 1 (1975-1995) . Now clarified. Thank you!

Prince in the Studio, Vol. 1 (1975-1995)
Author: Jake Brown
Format: Paperback: 184 pages.






I received a mail from amazon.co.jp. It reads they will not be able to obtain the copy of this book. Hence, my order was cancelled.

deepwater said:

Yeah. I contacted Jake Brown's current publisher and got nowhere. I never found a usable direct contact link for him either. An educated guess would be that this book will never see the light of day, unfortunately.

There is this new book on the horizon, though:

ISBN: 0312383002
ISBN-13: 9780312383008, 978-0312383008
Binding: Hardcover
Publishing Date: Apr 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Number of Pages: 368
Language: English



http://www.borders.com/on...0312383002

ISBN: 0312383002
ISBN-13: 9780312383008, 978-0312383008
Binding: Hardcover
Publishing Date: Apr 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Number of Pages: 368
Language: English

http://www.borders.com/on...0312383002

I have set aside my book for a little while because of work/life getting in the way. What was once a project of passion to do with UPTOWN has sort of died when UPTOWN died. Sadly, Prince will probably never reach the peak he has in the past and writing a book for a dwindling number of potential readers just isn't as much of a priority. I hope to finish it, or at least come out with the first volume in the future, but knowing that he is probably waiting with a lawsuit doesn't inspire me. I look at the work that went into Per Nilsen's fantastic book DANCE, MUSIC, SEX, ROMANCE and wonder if I can gather that much energy again. Per spent a great deal of money and time on that book and for all of us involved, it was a project of passion, but with Prince fighting his fans at every turn, the thrill of a project like this is tough to gather... at least for now.

Thank you for the props and hopefully one day, I'll finally gather all the notes and it will be either a great UPTOWN book as planned, or something outside of that.

Jake Brown's book and my book are two separate projects. I don't know Jake, but I assume that much of his info is gathered from UPTOWN magazine and much of the research done by us. I am curious to read it as well.

I have set aside my book for a little while because of work/life getting in the way. What was once a project of passion to do with UPTOWN has sort of died when UPTOWN died. Sadly, Prince will probably never reach the peak he has in the past and writing a book for a dwindling number of potential readers just isn't as much of a priority. I hope to finish it, or at least come out with the first volume in the future, but knowing that he is probably waiting with a lawsuit doesn't inspire me. I look at the work that went into Per Nilsen's fantastic book DANCE, MUSIC, SEX, ROMANCE and wonder if I can gather that much energy again. Per spent a great deal of money and time on that book and for all of us involved, it was a project of passion, but with Prince fighting his fans at every turn, the thrill of a project like this is tough to gather... at least for now.

Thank you for the props and hopefully one day, I'll finally gather all the notes and it will be either a great UPTOWN book as planned, or something outside of that.