Race For The Prize

Warner Bros. Records Japan, 1999
WPCR-10594

1. Race For The Prize -From the album The Soft Bulletin
2. Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) -From Zaireeka Disc 1, 1997
3. Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair -From Zaireeka Disc 1, 1997

UK CD2

1. Race For The Prize -From the album The Soft Bulletin
2. Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) -From Zaireeka Disc 2, 1997
3. Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair -From Zaireeka Disc 2, 1997

Japan CD

1. Race For The Prize -Flaming Lips version from the album The Soft Bulletin
2. Race For the Prize -Remix from the album The Soft Bulletin
3. Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) -Stereo remix; original 4 cd version from Zaireeka

4. Thirty-Five Thousand Feet Of Despair -Stereo remix; original 4 cd version from Zaireeka

5. The Big Ol' Bug Is The New Baby Now -Stereo remix; original 4 cd version from Zaireeka

See photos from making the video for Race For The Prize

First single from The Soft Bulletin, this single made the official Top 40 in the UK, as well as receiving plenty of drive-time airplay on Radio 1.

There's little wonder why this was the case - from the instant the drums come whacking in underneath a squealing strings and a twinkling piano, you know the Lips kept on walking through the sunset after they finished making Zaireeka. The song is a tale of two scientists who venture to the brink in their competitive search for a cure to some deadly disease. It's a tale of woe coupled with hope. The instrumentation is a melodic rush, periodically driven by those drums, periodically lapsing into a string-backed lament. For the scientists must sacrifice all - love, their families, life itself - to achieve the goal of saving humanity, and so instead fulfil their greater love for all mankind.

The telling refrain is, "Theirs is to win if it kills them, they're just humans with wives and children." Pretty thought provoking for a glorious pop song, wouldn't you say?

As for the B-sides of the UK singles, these are nothing new to the US fans, but represent a necessary effort to release the Zaireeka concept onto the domestic UK market, given the high price to be paid for an import copy of the 4-disc album. These two songs are the ones that have been carried into the new live performances and are perhaps the most 'conventional' tracks from the simultaneous playing experiment. Here we have the tracks from disc 1 on CD1, and disc 2 on CD2. Expect the tracks from discs 3 and 4 on the next UK single, rumoured to be Waitin' For A Superman..

Trainspotters will notice that (on both CDs) the sleeve lists the Peter Mokran remix of Race, while the version included is the Lips own...

As for the Japanese CD, this covers both LP versions of 'Race', plus the bonus of three of the stereo mixes of songs from Zaireeka. Originally slated for inclusion on the early working version of The Soft Bulletin, these tracks are essentially remixed and re-edited versions of the 4CD originals. Still pretty glorious, and you don't need four CD players to hear them, although you do trade off the startling effect of that total surround sound, and lose some of the depth and orchestration in the process. '2025' and '35,000ft' later turned up on the US CD5 for 'Superman', but this is the only commercial release of the stereo 'Big Ol' Bug' mix, otherwise only available on a limited WBR (US) promo cd.