Grandson of Vinyl-vs-CD - The Easy Teen-Age version

Part 4 - The Läther batch

Zappa In New York - Studio Tan - Sleep Dirt - Orchestral Favorites - Läther

Index | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

The story of the 4LP album called Läther that Zappa wanted to release in 1977 is told in different ways. The two main versions are:

Warner Bros. refused to publish the 4LP box, so Zappa reformatted the whole thing in 4 different albums (including 1 double LP);
Warner Bros. refused to publish Zappa In New York as Frank originally conceived it and was also very late in releasing the other 3 albums Zappa delivered to them to fulfill is contract, so FZ reformatted the whole thing in the 4LP album to sell it to another record company, but he didn't make it for legal reasons.

Anyway some things are sure:

an unreleased 4LP album called Läther was entirely played by Zappa in December 1977 at a L.A. radio station with an unusual Zappa asking the audience to let the tape recorders do their job (and many bootlegs were made out of this broadcast);
between March 1978 and May 1979 Warner Bros. released (on the old DiscReet label) four Zappa albums - Zappa In New York (2LP), Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, Orchestral Favorites - that share pretty much the same material with the 4LP album broadcasted by Zappa on December 1977;
in the late '80s Zappa recovered the rights to his back records catalog: not only he decided not to publish the unreleased Läther 4LP album, but, in 1991, re-issued for CD the four albums originally released by Warner Bros. (even if, for a couple of them, in a radically different version); some of the tracks originally on Läther remained unreleased until 1996;
the original Läther was finally released only in 1996, after Zappa's death and with some bonus tracks.

The 1995 Ryko "definitive" CD edition with the "1993 FZ approved masters" of these four records doesn't differ in sound content from the previous CD editions.

Läther links:

Click on the album acronym to get the detailed real Vinyl-vs-CD album faq page at The Zappa Patio.

Album		Year	Edition	Mix and editing differences	Other differences and relation to other albums
ZINY	2LP	1978	DiscReet 2D 2290	This record went out in some censored variants: most of them didn't carry Punky's Whips and had an edit on Titties & Beer.
	2CD	1991	Barking Pumpkin D27420 US	All CD versions are consistently remixed, restore Titties & Beer to full uncensored length (with some extra dialogue not present in the original version), have a radically changed Punky's Whips (including a full guitar part overdubbed and parts from a different performance) and an edit in Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me. Also in the CD versions there are 4 more tracks not on the original vinyl: • Cruisin' For Burger, • I'm The Slime, • The Torture Never Stops, • A Pound For A Brown. Given the tracks later released on Läther, the songs that are available in their original mix only on the vinyl version are: Sofa, Manx Needs Women, The Black Page #2 and, partially, Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me, The Black Page #1 and Titties & Beer.	Seven songs of ZINY also appear on the Läther album (with the original vinyl mix and uncensored): • Titties & Beer (with a different edit, details here), • I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth (as Läther), • Punky's Whips, • The Illinois Enema Bandit, • The Black Page #1 (shorter edit on Läther), • Big Leg Emma, • The Purple Lagoon/Approximate. Läther also contains a different version of Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me that includes some portions of the original ZINY vinyl mix of this song.
		1991	Zappa CDDZAP37 EU
		1995	Ryko RCD 10524/5
ST	1LP	1978	DiscReet DSK 2291*
	1CD	1991	Barking Pumpkin D274237 US	All CDs versions have a different tracks order than the original vinyl. The Adventures of Greggary Peccary has a couple of edits and a different stereo mix compared to the original vinyl version. The other songs seem to be identical to the original vinyl mix. Anyway for all songs the original vinyl version is available on Läther, even if there The Adventures of Greggary Peccary has a different ending, with some material added.	All Studio Tan songs are also available on Läther, but note that there The Adventures of Greggary Peccary has a different ending, with some material added. An excerpt of an overdubbed and otherwise unreleased version of Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra can be heard on TGWATFZ.
		1991	Zappa CDZAP44 EU
		1995	Ryko RCD 10526
SD	1LP	1979	DiscReet DSK 2292*
	1CD	1991	Barking Pumpkin D274238 US	This album has been heavily remixed and overdubbed for CD release. • Flambay, Spider Of Destiny and Time Is Money, that in the original mix were instrumental, have overdubbed vocals. • Flambay, Spider Of Destiny and Regyptian Strut have overdubbed drums. With the exception of Sleep Dirt, all songs of the original vinyl are included in Läther but often in a different edit. Note also that Läther contains (as bonus track) a further remixed and overdubbed version of Regyptian Strut that is different from the remixed and overdubbed version present in the CD editions of Sleep Dirt.	The earliest prints of these CDs have the vinyl mix of Regyptian Strut (but it sure sounds quite different from the same non overdubbed version that's on Läther).
		1991	Zappa CDZAP43 EU
		1995	Ryko RCD 10527		Läther includes six songs from the original vinyl version of Sleep Dirt: • Filthy Habits (in a shorter edit); • Flambay (spelled Flambé, in a shorter edit); • Spider Of Destiny; • Regyptian Strut; • Time Is Money (as bonus tracks); • The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution (five minutes shorter edit).
OF	1LP	1979	DiscReet DSK 2294*
	1CD	1991	Barking Pumpkin D274236 US	All CD versions have stereo image reversed. No other differences reported. Some tracks can be heard in the original stereo image on the Läther CD.	Läther includes three songs from the original vinyl version: • Naval Aviation In Art; • Pedro's Dowry; • Duke Of Prunes (as Duke Of Orchestral Prunes).
		1991	Zappa CDZAP45 EU
		1995	Ryko RCD 10529
L	3CD	1996	Ryko RCD 10574-5-6	For CD release Läther was remastered by Spencer Chrislu from the original master tapes prepared by Zappa in 1977. While most of the material was previously available on the albums listed above, some songs are unique to this release: • A Little Green Rosetta, • Duck Duck Goose, • Down In De Dew, • For The Young Sophisticate, • Tryin' To Grow A Chin, • Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Also, some bonus tracks were added to what originally planned by Zappa in 1977: • Regyptian Strut (1993 remix), • Läther Goods (previously unreleased, includes some of the regular Läther track Duck Duck Goose), • The Revenge Of The Knick Knack People (previously unreleased), • Time Is Money (Sleep Dirt vinyl mix).	Check the specific album entries for the relations between Läther and ZINY, ST, SD and OF. Beyond to those there are other: • A Little Green Rosetta shares some material with Ship Ahoy published in SU&PYG (and later on Quaudiophiliac); • Down In De Dew was first published in 1987 on the TGWATFZ tape. Last, many of the "links" between songs present on Läther also appair on SY, SUNPYG, TTR and the Baby Snakes movie: for a complete account check Román García Albertos's The Leather Conversation.
* "To this day I've thought those albums [Sleep Dirt, Studio Tan and Orchestral Favorites] had a weird sound. In talking to Zappa recently I learned that although Warners had the master tapes, he had the Dolby line-up tones. (He likes to be present during disc mastering.) So the equalization on those recordings is all wrong!" From "Tinseltown Rebellion" by John Bamford, in Hi-Fi Answers, November 1986 (quotation provided by Biffy the Elephant Shrew and reported by The Zappa Patio).

Check also some notes about the FZ phonography, including a compact mini-guide to different versions of Zappa's Records.
Frank Zappa's discography chronotable.
What do they mean those acronyms?

Disclaimer
For original vinyl version, as general rule, only the first US issue is listed.
For CD releases only the main US and European editions are listed.

Zappa In New York - Studio Tan - Sleep Dirt - Orchestral Favorites - Läther

Index | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5

Corrections and additions are really welcome.

This page created on April 2005 and latest revised on January 5, 2009

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