Studio Tan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Studio Tan | |||||
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| Studio album by Frank Zappa | |||||
| Released | September 15, 1978 | ||||
| Recorded | 1969, 1974 – 1976 | ||||
| Genre | Experimental rock, jazz fusion, hard rock, progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 39:18 | ||||
| Label | DiscReet Records | ||||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Frank Zappa chronology | |||||
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Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label.
It is one of three albums which Zappa's distributor, Warner Bros. Records initially refused to release. In 1976 Zappa delivered master tape copies of this album to Warner Bros. along with Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. Zappa attempted to fulfill his contract with Warner by delivering all three albums at once. Warner declined to release the albums at the time. The label failed to pay what was owed to Zappa according to his contract for the rights to release the albums. Zappa filed suit against Warner. A fourth album completed at the same time, Zappa in New York, was released first, though the content had been altered by the distributor without Zappa's permission.
Warner Bros., still holding onto the tapes, claimed they retained the right to release the albums as they saw fit. In 1977 Zappa re-edited most of this material, plus a few new items, into a 4 LP box set called Läther. A preliminary deal Zappa set up in 1977 with Mercury/Phonogram saw the Läther compilation get as far as the test pressing stage before Warner Bros. put a stop to the deal, citing ownership of the material. Again, Warner declined to release the recordings.
When the 1976 recordings were eventually released by Warner in 1978 Zappa had no say in the decision. Studio Tan was released with no musical credits, as Zappa had not supplied this information. Warner commissioned sleeve art by Gary Panter, which was not approved by Zappa.
The material on the album was made available to the public again when Läther was finally released to the public in 1996. Of the four albums that comprise Läther, Studio Tan is the only one to be represented in its near entirety. The only clear difference is that "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is presented in a slightly different mix on Studio Tan.
The title "studio tan" is a reference to the pallid skin of a musician who spends all of his time indoors and seldom sees sunlight; Zappa considered himself to suffer from this condition.
An excerpt from an unreleased alternate version of "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra" appears on the 1987 compilation The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa, with drum overdubs by Chad Wackerman.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All compositions by Frank Zappa.
[edit] Side one
- "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" – 20:40
[edit] Side two
- "Lemme Take You To The Beach" – 2:44
- "Revised Music For Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra" – 7:36
- "RDNZL" – 8:12
[edit] Personnel
- Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, percussion
- George Duke – keyboards
- John Berkman – piano
- Michael Zearott – conductor
- Pamela Goldsmith – viola
- Murray Adler – violin
- Sheldon Sanov – violin
- Jerry Kessler – cello
- Edward Meares – bass guitar
- Bruce Fowler – trombone
- Don Waldrop – trombone
- Jock Ellis – trombone
- Dana Hughes – bass trombone
- Earle Dumler – oboe
- JoAnn Caldwell – McNab bassoon
- Mike Altschul – flute
- Graham Young – trumpet
- Jay Daversa – trumpet
- Malcolm McNab – trumpet
- Ray Reed – flute
- Victor Morosco – saxophone
- John Rotella – woodwind instruments
- Alan Estes – percussion
- Emil Richards – percussion
- Tom Fowler – bass guitar
- Chester Thompson – drums
- Davey Moire – vocals
- Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
- Max Bennett – bass guitar
- Paul Humphrey – drums
- Don Brewer – bongos
- James "Bird Legs" Youmans – bass guitar
- Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer
