Sleep Dirt
Encyclopedia
Sleep Dirt 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. Much of the music on this album is also part of the Läther
album which was planned for release in 1977 but not issued until 1996.
ended in litigation. 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. At this point, Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to Warner and or DiscReet.
Early in 1977, Zappa delivered the master tapes for four albums to Warner Bros. There exact contents of these tapes remain unclear. Some sources claim that it was a quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther
. Other sources insist that the albums were four individual titles. Zappa In New York
(a two-LP set) was delivered complete with Zappa-approved artwork. This was followed by Studio Tan
, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites
. For the latter 3 albums Zappa delivered tapes only. It is unlikely that a single 4LP set could have fulfilled the requirements of Zappa's Warner Bros. contract, which would have ordinarily called for 4 individual titles. In any case, Warner Bros. refused to release the albums. Perhaps believing that the material was not up to par, Warner refused to pay Zappa for his production costs upon delivery of the four albums. This violated the terms of Zappa's contract.
During 1977 Zappa created the Läther compilation by re-editing recordings from same batch of tapes that made up the individual album configuration. He 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 Läther. In 1978 and 1979 Warner finally decided to release the three remaining individual albums they still held, Studio Tan
, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites
. As Zappa had delivered the tapes only, the three individual albums were released with no musical credits. Warner commissioned their own sleeve art by Gary Panter
, which was not approved by Zappa. Much of the material on Sleep Dirt was made available to the public again in a different form when Läther was finally officially released to the public in 1996 after Zappa's death.
Alternate instrumental versions of some tracks can be found on Läther, though "Flambay" was significantly shortened and some bars of "Spider of Destiny" were cut down; the full-length instrumental version of these two can only be found on the original LP. Interestingly enough, the CD version with the overdubbed vocals uses the same "Spider of Destiny" edit as on Läther, and, while it contains a longer version of "Flambay" (than on Läther), the ending has been edited down and the track segues differently into "Spider of Destiny".
Chad Wackerman overdubbed drums on "Flambay", "Spider of Destiny" and "Regyptian Strut". The first Barking Pumpkin CDs retrained the original version of "Regyptian Strut", but this was changed for other releases. Both versions can be found on Läther. Wackerman, however, did not overdub drums on "Time is Money" even if he's credited on the CD copy.
The creature shown on the cover is Hedorah
from the Godzilla
films.
(North America)
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
released in January, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records was a company founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. It was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records and Straight Records were discontinued...
label. It reached 175 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Much of the music on this album is also part of the Läther
Läther
Läther is an album by Frank Zappa which was released on CD posthumously in 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977, the recordings contained in Läther were made between 1972 and 1977 . A collection of these tapes was delivered to Warner Bros...
album which was planned for release in 1977 but not issued until 1996.
Background
In early 1976 Zappa's relationship with manager and business partner Herb CohenHerb Cohen
Herbert "Herb" Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:Cohen was born in New York...
ended in litigation. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records was a company founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. It was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records and Straight Records were discontinued...
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
Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures is a 1976 rock album by Frank Zappa. This was Zappa's only release on the Warner Bros. Records label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager Herb Cohen Frank Zappa's recording contract was temporarily re-assigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros.The title is a pun on the French...
on Warner. At this point, Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to Warner and or DiscReet.
Early in 1977, Zappa delivered the master tapes for four albums to Warner Bros. There exact contents of these tapes remain unclear. Some sources claim that it was a quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther
Läther
Läther is an album by Frank Zappa which was released on CD posthumously in 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977, the recordings contained in Läther were made between 1972 and 1977 . A collection of these tapes was delivered to Warner Bros...
. Other sources insist that the albums were four individual titles. Zappa In New York
Zappa in New York
Zappa in New York is a live double album by Frank Zappa. It was recorded at a series of concerts at New York City's Palladium in December 1976. It was released by Zappa's DiscReet Records label in 1977, then quickly withdrawn. A second version was re-released in 1978 with changes ordered by...
(a two-LP set) was delivered complete with Zappa-approved artwork. This was followed by Studio Tan
Studio Tan
Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the Billboard 200 albums chart...
, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra...
. For the latter 3 albums Zappa delivered tapes only. It is unlikely that a single 4LP set could have fulfilled the requirements of Zappa's Warner Bros. contract, which would have ordinarily called for 4 individual titles. In any case, Warner Bros. refused to release the albums. Perhaps believing that the material was not up to par, Warner refused to pay Zappa for his production costs upon delivery of the four albums. This violated the terms of Zappa's contract.
During 1977 Zappa created the Läther compilation by re-editing recordings from same batch of tapes that made up the individual album configuration. He then attempted to get a distribution deal with Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
/Phonogram
Phonogram Records
Phonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram....
to release Läther on the new Zappa Records label. This led Warner Bros. to threaten legal action, preventing the release of Läther. In 1978 and 1979 Warner finally decided to release the three remaining individual albums they still held, Studio Tan
Studio Tan
Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the Billboard 200 albums chart...
, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra...
. As Zappa had delivered the tapes only, the three individual albums were released with no musical credits. Warner commissioned their own sleeve art by Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
, which was not approved by Zappa. Much of the material on Sleep Dirt was made available to the public again in a different form when Läther was finally officially released to the public in 1996 after Zappa's death.
Content
Zappa's intended title for the album was Hot Rats III. The change in title by Warner Bros. also violated Zappa's contract. The version released in 1979 on vinyl LP was originally entirely instrumental. The CD re-release, however, has vocals added to some of the songs. Zappa had originally envisioned three of the album's tracks ("Flambay", "Spider of Destiny", and "Time Is Money") being used in his (abandoned) 1972 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.Alternate instrumental versions of some tracks can be found on Läther, though "Flambay" was significantly shortened and some bars of "Spider of Destiny" were cut down; the full-length instrumental version of these two can only be found on the original LP. Interestingly enough, the CD version with the overdubbed vocals uses the same "Spider of Destiny" edit as on Läther, and, while it contains a longer version of "Flambay" (than on Läther), the ending has been edited down and the track segues differently into "Spider of Destiny".
Chad Wackerman overdubbed drums on "Flambay", "Spider of Destiny" and "Regyptian Strut". The first Barking Pumpkin CDs retrained the original version of "Regyptian Strut", but this was changed for other releases. Both versions can be found on Läther. Wackerman, however, did not overdub drums on "Time is Money" even if he's credited on the CD copy.
The creature shown on the cover is Hedorah
Hedorah
, also known as the Smog Monster, is a fictional character in the 1971 film Godzilla vs. Hedorah. The monster was named for , the Japanese word for sludge, vomit, slime or chemical ooze. He is the main antagonist of the film.-Description:...
from the Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
films.
Side one
- "Filthy Habits" – 7:33
- "Flambay" – 5:02
- "Spider of Destiny" – 2:54
- "Regyptian Strut" – 4:15
Side two
- "Time Is Money" – 2:52
- "Sleep Dirt" – 3:20
- "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" – 13:20
CD (Barking Pumpkin and Rykodisc editions)
- "Filthy Habits" – 7:33
- "Flambay" – 4:54
- "Spider of Destiny" – 2:33
- "Regyptian Strut" – 4:12
- "Time Is Money" – 2:49
- "Sleep Dirt" – 3:21
- "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" – 13:17
Personnel
- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, percussion, keyboards, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones... - Patrick O'HearnPatrick O'HearnPatrick O'Hearn is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist. While his musical repertoire spans a diverse range of music, he is an acclaimed New Age artist in his solo career...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Terry BozzioTerry BozzioTerry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa.-Biography:Terry Bozzio was born December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California. He started at age 6 playing makeshift drum sets. At the age of 13 he saw The Beatles premier performance on The Ed...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - George DukeGeorge DukeGeorge Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
– keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, vocals - Bruce FowlerBruce FowlerBruce Lambourne Fowler is a prominent American trombone player and composer. He notably played trombone on many Frank Zappa records, as well as with Captain Beefheart, and in the Fowler Brothers Band...
– brassBrass instrumentA brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips... - Stephen Marcussen – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
, equalizationEqualizationEqualization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used... - Gary Panter – art director
- Dave Parlato – bass guitar
- Bob Stone – mastering, remastering, equalization
- Chester ThompsonChester ThompsonChester Cortez Thompson is an American drummer and session musician.-Biography:Thompson made his name as a session drummer, going on to play in Frank Zappa's touring band and with Weather Report...
– drums - Ruth UnderwoodRuth UnderwoodRuth Underwood is a retired professional musician, best known for playing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and other percussion instruments in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from 1967 to 1977....
– percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, keyboards - James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass guitar, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
- Thana Harris – vocals (CD remix)
- Chad WackermanChad WackermanChad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...
– drum overdubsOverdubbingOverdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
(CD remix)
Charts
Album - BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
(North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Pop Albums | 175 |