What happened to Läther between 1977 and 1996?
In early 1977, Frank Zappa tried something pretty revolutionary. He delivered Läther, a four album box set with with nearly three hours of brand new material, to Warner Brothers for release. They refused. Zappa asked for permission to release the box on a separate label. Warners initially agreed, then changed their minds after test pressings were made. Zappa sued for breach of contract, then in a now famous act of defiance, took one of the test pressings to KROQ in Los Angeles and offered to play the whole set on the air as an exclusive. KROQ agreed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Frank Zappa, and here comes the Läther album. Warner Brothers doesn't have the rights to this material, although it was delivered to them. See, this is an eight-sided album; they don't happen very often. (pause) I had my nerve, didn't I?"
-- Frank Zappa, kicking off the KROQ broadcast
Eventually, Zappa reluctantly resquenced the material, added tracks here and there, and came up with three new single albums (Studio Tan, Orchestral Favorites, and Sleep Dirt) containing most of the studio tracks from Läther, although Frank never completely accepted these albums as part of his canon. He always referred to them as "unauthorized". The live tracks on Läther were all from a series of shows in New York. Zappa released a double live album, Zappa In New York, from those shows.
All but two of the remaining tracks showed up on later albums, although most of those were rerecorded. Albums with rerecorded tracks are marked with an asterisk in the chart that follows. The exceptions were "Down In De Dew", which was released in 1987 on a cassette tape, The Guitar World According To Frank Zappa, only available from Guitar World magazine and "Duck Duck Goose", which was used in the soundtrack to Zappa's film Baby Snakes, but did not appear on the accompanying soundtrack album.
For you folks obsessive enough to be interested, here's the original album's running order, and a chart of how and when the songs were released. The CD has the same running order as the proposed album release would have. The first three sides are on the first CD, the second three are on the second, and the last two sides (along with the bonus tracks) are on disc three.
| Side | Läther title | Title as released | Released on album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Re-gyptian Strut" | "Regyptian Strut" | Sleep Dirt |
| "Naval Aviation In Art?" | "Naval Aviation In Art" | Orchestral Favorites | |
| "A Little Green Rosetta" (vocal portion) | "A Little Green Rosetta" | Joe's Garage - Acts II & III * | |
| "A Little Green Rosetta" (guitar solo) | "Ship Ahoy" | Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar Some More * | |
| "Duck Duck Goose" | (n/a) | The film score to Baby Snakes | |
| "Down In De Dew" | "Down In De Dew" | The Guitar World According To Frank Zappa | |
| "For The Young Sophisticate" | "For The Young Sophisticate" | Tinseltown Rebellion * | |
| 2 | "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" | "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" | Sheik Yerbouti * |
| "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes" | "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes" | Sheik Yerbouti * | |
| "The Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit" | "The Illinois Enema Bandit" | Zappa In New York | |
| 3 | "Lemme Take You To The Beach" | "Let Me Take You To The Beach" | Studio Tan |
| "Revised Music For Guitar And Low Budget Orchestra" | "Revised Music For Guitar And Low Budget Orchestra" | Studio Tan | |
| "RDNZL" | "RDNZL" | Studio Tan | |
| 4 | "Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me?" | "Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me?" | Zappa In New York |
| "Black Page #1" | "Black Page #1" | Zappa In New York | |
| "Big Leg Emma" | "Big Leg Emma" | Zappa In New York | |
| "Punky's Whips" | "Punky's Whips" | Zappa In New York | |
| 5 | "Flambé" | "Flambay" | Sleep Dirt |
| "The Purple Lagoon" | "The Purple Lagoon" | Zappa In New York | |
| 6 | "Pedro's Dowry" | "Pedro's Dowry" | Orchestral Favorites |
| "Läther" | "I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth" | Zappa In New York | |
| "Spider Of Destiny" | "Spider Of Destiny" | Sleep Dirt | |
| "Duke Of Orchestral Prunes" | "The Duke Of Prunes" | Orchestral Favorites | |
| 7 | "Filthy Habits" | "Filthy Habits" | Sleep Dirt |
| "Titties 'n Beer" | "Titties And Beer" | Zappa In New York | |
| "The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution" | "The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution" | Sleep Dirt | |
| 8 | "The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary" | "Greggery Peccary" | Studio Tan |
Extra Notes Added During The 2021 Reformatting Of This Page
When I wrote this back in 1996, I talked about the album's creation using the standard story from the Zappa camp: That Läther was delivered to Warner Brothers as a 4-LP set, rejected, then reluctantly split into 4 albums: Zappa In New York, Sleep Dirt, Studio Tan, and Orchestral Favorites. I found a very interesting write up from "Biffy the Elephant Shrew" talking about why this is likely a reverse of the truth. It's not the official party line, but it makes tons of sense. Hard-core Zappa fans should really read this: "Biffy the Elephant Shrew looks at Läther".