Sleep Dirt

This article is about the album by Frank Zappa. For crusts formed on the eyelids during sleep, see Rheum.

Untitled

Sleep Dirt (also known as Hot Rats III) is an album by Frank Zappa released in January, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached 175 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.

History

In 1976 the relationship between Zappa and his manager/business partner Herb Cohen turned sour. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Bros. When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to advance the possibility of being able to do special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warner Bros. briefly agreed. This led to the 1976 release of Zoot Allures on Warner. Later in 1976 Zappa claimed he delivered master tape copies of 4 individual LP's to Warner Bros. (see [1]) This would have fulfilled all of Zappa's final obligations and freed him to move to another label for his next release. The four albums in question were Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, Orchestral Favorites, and Zappa In New York (a 2LP set.) Believing that the material was sub-standard, Warner refused to pay Zappa upon delivery of the 4 albums (5 discs) according to their contract.

Therefore in 1977 Zappa decided he was contractually free to reconfigure the material on the 5 discs into a single 4LP set called Läther. Though both collections contained unique material the 4 disc set was trimmed down from the original 5 disc configuration, not the other way around as is commonly assumed. (see [2]) While Gail Zappa claims "Läther was always conceived as a 4 disc set", she was apparently unaware that all the material on the original 5 disc configuration was already recorded between 1971 and 1976, and completed a year before Läther. In fact there is no evidence that Zappa ever delivered tapes for Läther to Warner, nor would a single 4LP set have fulfilled the requirements of the Zappa/Warner contract. Zappa In New York was released in 1977 and was censored and re-sequenced by Warner without Zappa's authorization.

Zappa then attempted to get a distribution deal with Mercury/Phonogram to release Läther on the new Zappa Records label. This led Warner Bros. to threaten legal action, preventing the release of the Läther collection. In 1978 and 1979 Warner finally decided to release the 3 remaining individual albums they had initially rejected, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestra Favorites. As Zappa delivered the tapes only, the three individual albums were released with no musical credits, as Zappa had not supplied this information. Warner commissioned their own sleeve art by Gary Panter, which was not approved by Zappa. (see [3])

Much of the material on the album was made available to the public again when Läther was finally released to the public in 1996.

Zappa had originally envisaged three of the album's tracks ("Flambay", "Spider of Destiny", and "Time Is Money") being used in his (abandoned) Hunchentoot musical, and thus, these songs were intended to have vocals. For the CD reissue of Sleep Dirt, Thana Harris overdubbed vocals on the aforementioned tracks, and Chad Wackerman overdubbed drums. The original, instrumental versions of these tracks can be found on Läther (though "Flambay" was greatly shortened; the full-length instrumental version of that can only be found on the original lp.)

The creature shown on the cover is Hedorah from the Godzilla films.

Track listing

All songs written by Frank Zappa.

Side one

1. "Filthy Habits" – 7:33
2. "Flambay" – 4:54
3. "Spider of Destiny" – 2:33
4. "Regyptian Strut" – 4:13

Side two

1. "Time Is Money" – 2:48
2. "Sleep Dirt" – 3:21
3. "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" – 13:18

Personnel

• Frank Zappa – guitar, percussion, keyboards, synthesizer
• Terry Bozzio – drums
• George Duke – keyboards, vocals
• Bruce Fowler – brass
• Stephen Marcussen – mastering, equalization
• Patrick O'Hearn – bass guitar
• Gary Panter – art director
• Dave Parlato – bass guitar
• Bob Stone – mastering, remastering, equalization
• Chester Thompson – drums
• Ruth Underwood – percussion, keyboards
• James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass guitar, guitar

• Thana Harris – vocals (CD remix)
• Chad Wackerman – drum overdubs (CD remix)

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1979	Pop Albums	175