Läther
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Läther | ||
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| Box set by Frank Zappa | ||
| Released | September 24, 1996 | |
| Recorded | 1972–1977 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 172:56 | |
| Label | Rykodisc | |
| Producer(s) | Frank Zappa | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||
| The Lost Episodes (1996) |
Läther (1996) |
Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996) |
Läther is an album by Frank Zappa. Although its history is complex it was eventually released as a set of three CDs in September 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977, Läther (The title's heavy metal umlaut makes the pronunciation leather.) features unreleased tracks, unreleased versions of familiar tunes and alternate mixes and edits of tracks that appeared on four separate albums in 1978 and 1979. Zappa in New York (1978), Studio Tan (1978), Sleep Dirt (1979) and Orchestral Favorites (1979), and in edited form on Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981). Legal hassles with Warner Bros., Zappa's record label at the time, prevented the original release of Läther. Stories vary, but according to Gail Zappa, Zappa conceived Läther as a four-album box set which Warner Bros. declined to release. The label then thwarted Zappa's attempts to release it elsewhere by threatening legal action.
There are two schools of thought regarding the history of the long-unreleased album, one being that Zappa prepared the four individual albums first and delivered them to Warner Bros. all at once. When they declined to release them or pay him for the master tapes, Zappa reformatted some of the material, along with a few other unreleased items, into the four-album box set. A preliminary deal with Mercury/Phonogram actually saw the album get as far as the test pressing stage before Warner Bros. threatened legal action, claiming ownership of the material.
The other school of that is that Zappa delivered Läther to Warner Bros., who then declined to release it, after which he reluctantly reformatted some of Läther's material into the separate albums, and delivered them to the record company in an effort to fulfill his contractual obligations. Zappa alleged that Warner Bros. refused to pay him for the material, declared them in breach of contract and the lawsuits began.
Prior to the CD's release, Läther had been considered one of rock music's great lost albums; "the Smile [The Beach Boys' unreleased album] of the Freak Out set.[1]" Zappa took matters into his own hands in December 1977 by playing the entire work on Pasadena's KROQ radio station and instructing listeners to tape it. He said, "This is Frank Zappa as your bogus temporary disc jockey making it possible for you to run your little cassette machine and tape an album which is perhaps never going to be available to the public at large." While this has always been seen as a rebellious move on Zappa's part, Warner Bros. actually gave the station permission to broadcast the album, as they had no interest in releasing it at the time. It wasn't until he offered the four-album set to Mercury/Phonogram that Warner Bros. decided to release the individual albums he had delivered to them. Until the CD was released, on Rykodisc, Läther's material was available on bootlegs which had been sourced either from tapes of the radio broadcast or from copies of the test pressing. The Rykodisc CD represents the 8-sided album as it was originally conceived, albeit with four bonus tracks appended at the end of disc three. Most of the material on Läther appears in some form on the 1978–79 albums—in total, twenty of the thirty tracks present appear elsewhere. However, only six tracks on the set are precisely the same as those on Rykodisc's other Zappa albums, the remaining being either alternative mixes or unique to the box[2].
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All tracks by Frank Zappa.
[edit] Disc one
- "Re-gyptian Strut" – 4:36
- "Naval Aviation in Art?" – 1:32
- "A Little Green Rosetta" – 2:48
- "Duck Duck Goose" – 3:01
- "Down in de Dew" – 2:57
- "For the Young Sophisticate" – 3:14
- "Tryin' to Grow a Chin" – 3:26
- "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes" – 4:40
- "The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit" – 12:43
- "Lemme Take You to the Beach" – 2:46
- "Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra" – 7:36
- "RDNZL" – 8:14
[edit] Disc two
- "Honey Don't You Want a Man Like Me" – 4:56
- "The Black Page #1" – 1:57
- "Big Leg Emma" – 2:11
- "Punky's Whips" – 11:06
- "Flambe" – 2:05
- "The Purple Lagoon" – 16:22
- "Pedro's Dowry" – 7:45
- "Läther" – 3:50
- "Spider of Destiny" – 2:40
- "Duke of Orchestral Prunes" – 4:21
[edit] Disc three
- "Filthy Habits" – 7:12
- "Titties 'n Beer" – 5:23
- "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" – 8:32
- "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" – 21:00
- "Regyptian Strut (1993)" – 4:42
- "Leather Goods" – 6:01
- "Revenge of the Knick Knack People" – 2:25
- "Time Is Money" – 3:04
