Läther

Background

Zappa's relationship with manager Herb Cohen ended in May 1976. Zappa and Cohen were the co-owners of the DiscReet record label, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Records. After Cohen cashed one of Zappa's royalty checks from Warner and kept the money for himself, Zappa sued him. Zappa was also upset with Cohen for signing acts he did not approve.

Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze money which the pair were expecting to receive from an out-of-court settlement with MGM/Verve over the rights to Zappa's early Mothers of Invention recordings. The MGM settlement was eventually finalized in mid 1977 after two years of negotiations. Zappa re-negotiated with Warner and had his contract re-assigned in October 1976. He delivered the album Zoot Allures directly to Warner that month, while bypassing DiscReet. Zappa had intended this as a double LP, but he was later forced to re-edit the release into a single LP at the insistence of Warner executives. Cohen countersued, claiming that the Warner release violated the terms of his DiscReet contract with Zappa. So the final four albums of Zappa's recording contract were then assigned back to DiscReet, against Zappa's objection.

Recording sessions

Läther was assembled by Zappa in 1977 from a wide variety of recording sessions stretching back as far as eight years, but mostly between 1972 and 1976. The tracks utilize a constantly changing cast of backing musicians. Most of the songs on Läther are linked together with bits of musical sound effects (musique concrète) and comic dialog from Zappa band members, Terry Bozzio, Patrick O'Hearn, and Davey Moire. More of these same bits, or "grouts" as Zappa allegedly called them, appear on other albums such as Sheik Yerbouti.

The album's opener "Re-Gyptian Strut" comes from December 1974 sessions at Caribou Ranch in Colorado. "Flambé" and "Spider of Destiny" were also recorded at the ranch with additional overdubs in 1976 at the Los Angeles Record Plant. These three are among the songs written by Zappa in 1972 for a stage musical called Hunchentoot. A full script exists, but the Hunchentoot recordings were never completed.

Basic tracks for "Lemme Take You to the Beach" were recorded during 1969 sessions for Hot Rats. The track was finished in 1976 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. "Down in De Dew" comes from November 1972 sessions in New York and Los Angeles. "For The Young Sophisticate" is a 1973 studio recording from Bolic Sound and is different from the later live version on Tinsel Town Rebellion.

Most of the live tracks were recorded in December 1976 at the Palladium in New York City. The last recordings are live tracks including "Tryin' to Grow a Chin" from a February 1977 London show at the Hammersmith Odeon. This song also appeared in a different later recording on Sheik Yerbouti.

Many of the orchestral works come from a September 1975 session with the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra, which was recorded at Royce Hall with conductor Michael Zearott. Zappa said the 1975 Royce Hall sessions alone cost him about $200,000, due to the number of musicians hired.

The most substantial work is "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary", a story with Zappa's narration set to music, which lasts over 20 minutes. The piece is scored for a large orchestra and was recorded in Los Angeles between 1972 and 1974.

History

In April 1975 Zappa complained about ongoing contractual disputes between DiscReet and Warner. The same month he had a one-sided demo acetate disc cut at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California. This unreleased disc contains "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra", "200 Years Old" and "Re-Gyptian Strut". Zappa's liner notes in the June 1975 album One Size Fits All mention a planned studio follow up album which never appeared. Instead, Zappa released the (mostly) live album Bongo Fury in October 1975. Bongo Fury contained a four minute version of "200 Years Old" which was edited from the one on the April 1975 acetate.

A complete album titled Six Things was also cut as a demo acetate at Kendun in April 1976. This was an unreleased early edit of music from the Royce Hall orchestral sessions. The same year Zappa tried to negotiate release of an orchestral album with Columbia Masterworks, but the deal fell through when the label did not agree to Zappa's terms.

During the fall 1976 tour the Zappa band performed in front of slide projector images, one of which said "Warner Bros. Sucks!" Zappa was upset over inadequate promotion. By late 1976 he was determined to complete his Warner contract as soon as possible. As early as December that year Zappa talked about handing multiple individual albums over to Warner and had "more than four" currently in production. Contracts then stipulated that Zappa deliver four new albums to Warner for release on DiscReet. In December 1977 Zappa said:

"Between last October and December 31 of this year I was required to deliver to Warner Brothers four completed albums. I delivered all four in March of this year. According to the contract, upon receipt of the tapes, they have to pay me. They received the tapes and they did not pay me."

Warner was expecting to receive only one album at a time, not four. Upon delivery the label was required to pay an advance to Zappa of $60,000 per album ($240,000 total) and release the recordings in the United States within six weeks. Warner failed to honor these contractual terms. Zappa had paid in excess of $400,000 out of his own pocket to produce these tapes and in response, he filed a multi-million dollar breach of contract lawsuit.

Most of the material on Läther would be released during 1978 and 1979 on Zappa in New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt (previously titled Hot Rats III), and Orchestral Favorites. In an October 1978 radio interview, Zappa identified these four individual albums as the ones he previously delivered to Warner and added "Läther was made out of four albums. Warners has released two of them already and they have two more that they're probably gonna release."

CD issues

Zappa chose to re-issue the four previously released individual albums on CD in 1991 along with the Panter artwork and added credits. Each of them were either remixed and or altered in various ways. These albums appeared in the US on Zappa's Barking Pumpkin label.

In 1995 Rykodisc again reissued Zappa's entire catalog up to that date. The 1995 CD versions of the four albums related to Läther have exactly the same audio content as the 1991 CDs.

One year later, Läther was released officially through Rykodisc as a three-CD album. This edition used new 1996 artwork and was released in a plastic jewel case. Gail Zappa confirmed that the stereo master tapes for the four-LP Läther box were used as the source. While Zappa's notes from the tape boxes show a slightly different track listing, the 1996 CD version of Läther is musically identical to the 1977 test pressings. The only difference is that four bonus tracks were also added. Among these is commentary from Zappa taken from his KROQ broadcast. Also, the title of the song "One More Time for the World" was changed to "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution", the title under which a longer version the same song appears on the album Sleep Dirt.

Along with most of Zappa's material, a "mini-LP" CD edition was also released by Rykodisc in Japan, with the artwork reformatted to resemble the packaging of a vinyl album.

In December 2012 an official reissue of Läther appeared in cardboard packaging with the original intended 1977 artwork. This version omits the 1996 bonus tracks.

Release and reception

The official version of Läther was finally released with the authorization of Gail Zappa in September 1996, nearly three years after Frank's death.

It has been debated as to whether Frank Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP box set from the beginning, or only later when working with Phonogram around September–October 1977. In the liner notes to the 1996 release, Gail Zappa says "As originally conceived by Frank, Läther was always a 4-record box set." She also claimed that Warner, wary of a four-LP box, had declined to release Läther. Despite Gail's claim, however, there is no evidence that Frank Zappa ever offered or delivered the four-LP Läther set to Warner, only the four individual albums. Frank himself actually contradicted Gail's posthumous claims that Warner had broken up Läther into other albums. Several interviews published in 1978 and an album review from 1996 explicitly state that Zappa re-edited the four individual albums into the Läther four-LP box and then presented it to Phonogram.

In a January 1978 Zappa interview the British publication New Musical Express said:

"Since his (Warner) contract had allegedly been breached, Zappa took his copy tapes of the four albums, added some new material, subtracted some old, and prepared a four-record set called "Läther", but pronounced "Leather".

Allmusic writer Richie Unterberger praised the album, but wrote that it would "appeal far more to the Zappa cultist than the general listener, though the Zappa cult – which has been craving Läther in its original format for years – is a pretty wide fan base in and of itself."

Personnel

Credits are adapted from liner notes of 1996 Rykodisc release unless otherwise noted

Disc One, Track 1

Frank Zappa – percussion

George Duke – keyboards

Bruce Fowler – all brass

James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass

Ruth Underwood – percussion

Chester Thompson – drums

Disc One, Track 2; Disc Two, Track 7 & 10

Frank Zappa – guitar

Dave Parlato – bass

Terry Bozzio – drums

Emil Richards – percussion

Orchestra conducted by Michael Zearott

Disc One, Track 3 (Part One)

Frank Zappa – vocal

George Duke – keyboards

Disc One, Track 3 (Part Two)

Frank Zappa – lead guitar

Andre Lewis – keyboards

Roy Estrada – bass

Terry Bozzio – drums

Disc One, Track 4, 7 & 8; Disc Three Track 6