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Läther

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Allmusic [1]

Läther (pronounced "Leather") is an album by Frank Zappa which was released on CD posthumously in 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977[2], the recordings contained in the Läther CD compilation were made between 1972 and 1977 (with one track from 1969). A collection of these recordings was delivered to Warner Bros. Records in 1977 but the label refused to release it.

Läther shares material with four other Zappa albums: Zappa in New York (two versions; 1977 and 1978), Studio Tan (1978), Sleep Dirt (1979), and Orchestral Favorites (1979). A few small parts also appeared in edited form on Sheik Yerbouti (1979), and Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981). The Läther recordings, which are taken from the same batch of tapes as the individual albums, were widely circulated as unofficial bootleg LPs starting in the late 1970s.

Background

Before the official Läther release on CD in 1996, the album had been considered one of rock music's great lost albums, considered "the Smile of the Freak Out set."[3]

Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended amid litigation in 1976. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Brothers. Zappa sued Cohen for skimming more than he was allocated from DiscReet Records, as well as for signing acts of which Zappa did not approve.[4] Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money Zappa and Cohen had gained from an out-of-court settlement with MGM over the rights of the early Mothers of Invention recordings. It also prevented Zappa having access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials.

When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to do special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warner Bros. briefly agreed. This led to the 1976 release of the rock album Zoot Allures on Warner. Zappa took his personal master tape copies of the rock-oriented Zoot Allures album (1976) directly to Warner Bros., thereby bypassing DiscReet.[5] However, Warner reversed this decision following legal action from Cohen.

At this point, Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to Warner for release on DiscReet. Interviews from the 1976-1978 period show that Zappa had clearly become unhappy about his business dealings with Cohen, Warner and DiscReet and was very eager to complete his contractual obligations. In a move unprecedented for a Rock artist, Zappa decided to deliver all 4 remaining albums on his contract at the same time (or nearly the same time.)

The Läther controversy

There is still a great deal of confusion surrounding Zappa's earliest artistic intentions for material on the Läther album. It is still not known for sure whether the individual albums were created before or after Läther. To this day it remains debated whether Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP set from the beginning.

It is known that early in 1977, Zappa delivered master tapes for four albums to Warner Bros. The exact contents of these tapes remain in dispute. Some sources, including Gail Zappa, claim that it was a quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther. According to this theory, in the mid-1970s Zappa prepared material for Läther (pronounced "leather"), a four-LP project, which he intended as his "swan song" for Warner Bros.[6] Wary of a quadruple-LP, Warner Bros. Records refused to release it.[7] The phrase "swan song" was written by a Billboard Magazine reporter 20 years after the recordings were made. In 1979 Zappa said "You have to understand that at no point am I summing up my career."[8]

In the liner notes to the 1996 Läther CD release, Gail Zappa states that "As originally conceived by Frank, Läther was always a 4-record box set." This statement was written nearly 20 years after the material was completed and three years after Frank Zappa's death at a time when Gail was trying to promote the Läther CD. However, when the material on Läther was first released on Compact Disc in 1991 Frank Zappa chose to issue the individual album configurations (with cover artwork by Gary Panter) in place of Läther. This strongly suggests that Frank Zappa's own preference was to release the individual albums in place of Läther.

Independent sources who have done extensive research on this subject believe that, originally, the albums were four individual titles (a total of 5 full length LPs.)[9] They also believe that Warner Bros. received the individual albums in early 1977, rather than Läther. It seems unlikely that a single 4 LP set could have fulfilled the requirements of Zappa's Warner Bros. contract, which would have ordinarily called for 4 individual titles.

Warner Bros. never attempted to release Läther. However, we do know that Warner Bros did receive tapes of the individual albums. Says a noted Zappa researcher "I have been unable to find any statement in Zappa's own words to indicate unambiguously that he ever offered a four-disc set (Läther) to Warner Brothers. It is my conclusion that Läther was not compiled until after Zappa's split from Warner Brothers."[10]

The process whereby Zappa would create complicated new works out of existing recorded material in his vaults is directly paralleled by Lumpy Gravy which he released in 1967 and 1968. In both Läther and Lumpy Gravy Zappa used his advanced editing skills to weave together a wide variety of material that he had already recorded in many different places and times. In both cases Zappa was forced to construct new works out of older ones due to legal issues with record companies.

History and release information

Regardless of the exact contents of the tapes submitted to Warner Bros. in 1977, the label objected to the release of some or all of the recordings. Upon delivery of the tapes Warner refused to pay Zappa for production costs. This violated Zappa's contract. What is known for sure is that Zappa In New York (a two-LP set) was delivered and released on DiscReet in 1977, complete with Zappa-approved artwork. (This album was quickly withdrawn. It was later edited by Warner without Zappa's approval and re-issued in 1978.) In addition, three more titles were delivered to Warner: Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites, for which Zappa supplied tapes, but no artwork or musical credits.

At some point in 1977, music from the same batch of recordings was also edited into the 4 album box of Läther recordings. The earliest known existence of Läther that can be independently confirmed dates from October 1977.[2] The album was scheduled for Halloween 1977 release as the first title on Zappa Records, with distribution through Phonogram. However, Warner Bros. interfered with the deal, and this required Zappa to put the project on hold. In December 1977 Zappa took matters into his own hands by playing the entire 4 record vinyl test pressing of the Läther work on Pasadena's KROQ-FM radio station and instructing listeners to record it. Until the CD was released, on Rykodisc, Läther was only available on bootlegs which had been sourced either from tapes of the radio broadcast or directly from copies of the test pressing.[11]

Warner Bros. did eventually release the 4 individual album configurations on DiscReet between 1977 and 1979. For three of the albums, Warner commissioned their own sleeve art without Zappa's approval.

Frank's son Dweezil has stated that Zappa's dealings with Warner have changed the way record contracts are written. Most contracts written since late 1970s clearly state the maximum and minimum lengths of time between delivery of albums. Such stipulations are designed to make it impossible for an artist to deliver multiple albums at once as Zappa did in 1977.

Content

Each of the 4 titles in the individual album series has a cohesive and unique style of its own. The styles range from live Rock performances, Chamber music combined with Rock, Jazz rock, and Orchestral pop. However, in the Läther configuration the styles were mixed up in a seemingly random way and linked with bits of odd dialogue and sound effects.[12] Though both collections have unique material, the individual album series contains more music and is significantly larger (5 full LPs) than the 4 LP Läther set.

The three CD Läther set released in 1996 represents the full 4 LP Läther collection plus a variety of bonus tracks. Most of the material on Läther appears in some form on the 1977–79 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.[13]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa

CD 1; LP side one
No.TitleLength
1."Re-gyptian Strut"4:36
2."Naval Aviation in Art?"1:32
3."A Little Green Rosetta"2:48
4."Duck Duck Goose"3:01
5."Down in de Dew"2:57
6."For the Young Sophisticate"3:14
LP side two
No.TitleLength
7."Tryin' to Grow a Chin"3:26
8."Broken Hearts Are for Assholes"4:40
9."The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit"12:43
LP side three
No.TitleLength
10."Lemme Take You to the Beach"2:46
11."Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra"7:36
12."RDNZL"8:14
Total length:57:36
CD 2; LP side four
No.TitleLength
1."Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?"4:56
2."The Black Page #1"1:57
3."Big Leg Emma"2:11
4."Punky's Whips"11:06
LP side five
No.TitleLength
5."Flambe"2:05
6."The Purple Lagoon"16:22
LP side six
No.TitleLength
7."Pedro's Dowry"7:45
8."Läther"3:50
9."Spider of Destiny"2:40
10."Duke of Orchestral Prunes"4:21
Total length:57:17
CD 3; LP side seven
No.TitleLength
1."Filthy Habits"7:12
2."Titties 'n Beer"5:23
3."The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution"8:32
LP side eight
No.TitleLength
4."The Adventures of Greggery Peccary"21:00
CD bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
5."Regyptian Strut (1993)"4:42
6."Leather Goods"6:01
7."Revenge of the Knick Knack People"2:25
8."Time Is Money"3:04
Total length:58:24

Personnel

Disc One, Track 1
Disc One, Track 2; Disc Two, Track 7 & 10
Disc One, Track 3 (part One)
Disc One, Track 3 (Part Two)
Disc One, Track 4 (Part One), 7 & 8; Disc Two, Track 1; Disc Three Track 6
Disc One, Track 5
Disc One, Track 6
Disc One, Track 9; Disc Two, Track 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8; Disc Three, Track 2
Disc One, Track 10
Disc One, Track 11; Disc Three, Track 4
Disc One, Track 12; Disc Three, Track 8
Disc Two, Track 5 & 9
Disc Three, Track 1
Disc Three, Track 3
Disc Three, Track 5
Production credits
  • Digital Mastering & EQ – Spencer Chrislu
  • Transfer Engineers – David Dondorf, Spencer Chrislu
  • Vaultmeisterment – Joe Travers
  • Bonues Section Assembly, Edits & Mastering – Spencer Chrislu
  • Cover Concept – Dweezil Zappa
  • Forward Motion – Gail Zappa
  • Deep-dish Descriptions – Simon Prentis
  • Cover Execution & Layout Design – Steven Jurgensmeyer

References

  1. ^ Unterberger, R. (2011 [last update]). "Läther - Frank Zappa | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 July 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  2. ^ a b Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 261.
  3. ^ "Review of Läther". Goldmine. October 11, 1996. Archived from the original on 2002-11-08. Retrieved 2007-11-03. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 250.
  5. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 253; pp. 258–259.
  6. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=wAcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15&dq=zappa+lather&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0dggT8uvO6bMsQLxlsDDCQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=zappa%20lather&f=false
  7. ^ Lowe, 2006, The Words and Music of Frank Zappa, p. 131.
  8. ^ http://members.shaw.ca/francescoz/biffyshrew/frank.html
  9. ^ http://members.shaw.ca/francescoz/biffyshrew/lather.html
  10. ^ http://members.shaw.ca/francescoz/biffyshrew/lather.html
  11. ^ "Counterfeits & Stuff - Läther". son of the alt.fan.frank-zappa Bootleg FAQ. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
  12. ^ "The Zappa vs. Warner Bros. story". Retrieved 2009-03-27.
  13. ^ Zoot (September 26, 1996). "Läther Source Codes". alt.fan.frank-zappa. Retrieved 2007-11-03. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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