This review is eighteen months overdue. Back around February
\n1998, a reader (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten) asked me
\nto review
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> from Frank Zappa, because he was seriously
\nconsidering buying it, and wanted to know what I thought of it.<\/p>\n
Problem number one: I was locked into reviewing the entire
\nYou Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore<\/i> series, and we had just
\nreviewed the first volume a week prior. Problem number two: we
\ndon’t review an artist twice in a 60-day period, so it was going to
\nbe some time before I got to this hot potato. Problem number three:
\nI didn’t own
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i>… a problem I solved the other day when I
\nsnagged a copy at Wherehouse Music.<\/p>\n
I’m sure our reader has long since bought
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> for himself – and I’m sure he’s satisfied with
\nhis purchase. This is a lot to digest in one sitting, and the
\ndiehard Zappa fan probably owns many of these songs already, but
\nit’s still a welcome addition to your collection.<\/p>\n
A bit of history:
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> was supposed to be released in 1978 as a
\nfour-record box set, but (depending on which story you believe)
\nWarner Brothers would not allow Zappa to put it out, and they
\nrefused to release it. Instead, Zappa turned around and released a
\nseries of albums that utilized a lot of the songs from
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> on them. These albums,
\nSleep Dirt<\/i>,
\nStudio Tan<\/i> and
\nOrchestral Favorites<\/i>, we’ll eventually get to. You’ll also
\nhear elements on
\nZappa In New York<\/i> and
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i>. Finally, in 1996 – three years after Zappa’s
\ndeath, Gail Zappa and Rykodisc answered the prayers of many Zappa
\ndevotees and brought this set out, eighteen years after it was
\nsupposed to be issued.<\/p>\n
Was it worth it? Simply put: Damn straight.<\/p>\n
Many of the songs here will sound familiar to you. Encased on
\nthis three-CD set include early versions of “Broken Hearts Are For
\nAssholes” and “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?” (including a
\nbrief confrontation between a disgruntled concert attendee and
\nZappa). These versions are a little rough, compared to the more
\npolished versions you can hear on other albums, but they’re of
\nhistorical significance. An additional version of “Big Leg Emma” is
\na lot of fun to listen to – and I’m always interested to hear
\ndifferent versions of “Titties ‘n Beer” just to hear the interplay
\nbetween Zappa and drummer Terry Bozzio.<\/p>\n
If you own
\nZappa In New York<\/i>, you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with
\n“Punky’s Whips” and “The Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit,” both
\ntracks intro’ed by Don Pardo. (How Zappa got him to do these shows
\nI’ll never know; you wouldn’t expect Pardo to be saying some of the
\nthings he says.)<\/p>\n
Some people could claim that
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> is just a rehash of
\nStudio Tan<\/i>,
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> and
\nOrchestral Favorites<\/i> (casually forgetting that
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> pre-dates these releases). In fact, a lot of the
\ntracks from these albums can be found here, but there are a few
\ntracks on
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> and
\nOrchestral Favorites<\/i> that aren’t on
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i>. And even if you didn’t especially like these
\nalbums when they first came out, don’t be so quick to write
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> off; this set actually helps these songs by
\nputting them into a new light. Indeed, hearing them the way they
\nwere meant to be heard helps a lot. (Well, with one exception; I
\nstill don’t like “The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary”.)<\/p>\n
So, let’s say you’re one of the lucky people who taped
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> off the radio when Zappa, in an effort to piss
\noff his friends at Warner Brothers, played the entire album on the
\nair, this set includes four previously unreleased tracks (including
\na remix of “Regyptian Strut” from the year of Zappa’s death). While
\nI’m not sure if these actually enhance this set, they are
\ninteresting to listen to.<\/p>\n
The biggest negative of
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> is that it’s over 2 1\/2 hours in length, a lot
\nfor even a diehard Zappa fan to sit through in one shot. If you
\nhave the patience, it is an experience that is well worth it; even
\nbreaking it up by disc is worth it, and it doesn’t lessen the power
\nof the music. (One other negative could be the price, though I
\nthink it is well worth the investment, especially if you’re into
\nZappa. Then again, I paid $20 for a used set, so I freely admit I’m
\ncheap.)<\/p>\n
\nL\u00e4ther<\/i> is one of the Holy Grails that Zappa fans have
\nlong been drooling for. My advice: wipe your mouth, hie yourself
\ndown to the store and snag this puppy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36257","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36257"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36257"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}