Läther (thing)

Läther was originally conceived as an eight-sided LP album to be released in 1977. At the time, Frank Zappa still owed Warner Bros. four records to complete his contract. The problem was that his record company would neither accept Läther as fulfillment of the contract nor allow it to be released on another label. The album was chopped into 4 theme-based albums which the record company did not exactly accept, but it's all they got. Most of the material from this album can therefore be found on Zappa in New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites.

Warner Brothers does not have the rights to this material, although it was delivered to them. See this is an eight-sided album, Y'know. They don't happen very often. I had my nerve, didn't I?

Warner Brothers refused to pay for the final four albums, so the legal battles began. Frustrated, Zappa took the orignal Läther album to a local Pasadena radio station KROQ and asked them to play it. Frank got on the air and told everyone to get their cassette recorders ready before playing the album in its entirety. For nearly twenty years, this album was only available as a traded bootleg of sorts.

A couple years after Zappa died, our friends at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen hatched the brilliant quest to reconstitute Läther for posterity. These are the fine folks responsible (from inlay):

• Digital Mastering & EQ - Spencer Chrislu
• Transfer Engineers - David Dondorf, Spencer Chrislu
• Vaultmeisterment - Joe Travers
• Bonus Section Assembly, Edits & Mastering - Spencer Chrislu
• Cover Concept - Dweezil Zappa
• Forward Motion - Gail Zappa
• Deep-dish Descriptives - Simon Prentis
• Cover Execution & Layout Design - Steven Jurgensmeyer
• Enthusiasm - Jill Christianson
• Special Thanks To Susan S. Kaplan & Silvio

The result is perhaps the most broadly representative album from Frank's entire discography, and that is not a lightly-made assertion with such a broad reportoire to choose from. After listening perhaps 30 times, I still find new musical depths to explore. That's the thing about Zappa, it almost never sounds good until you've listened enough to piece it all together in your head. Check this album out after you've familiarized yourself with some of his more digestible albums like Hot Rats, Apostrophe, or Sheik Yerbouti.

Track Listing

Disc 1

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
7. Tryin' To Grow A Chin 3:26
8. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes 4:40
9. The Illinois Enema Bandit 12:43
10. Let Me Take You To The Beach 2:46
11. Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra 7:36
12. Rdnzl 8:14

Disc 2

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
5. Flambe 2:05
6. The Purple Lagoon 16:22
7. Pedro's Dowry 7:45
8. Läther 3:50
9. Spider Of Destiny 2:40
10. Duke Of Orchestral Prunes 4:21

Disc 3

1. Filthy Habits 7:12
2. Titties And Beer 5:23
3. The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution 8:32
4. The Adventure Of Greggery Pecary 21:00
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

Sources

• CD Inlay
• http://www.rykodisc.com/Catalog/dump/rykoalbums_72.asp
• http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Lather.html