The year 1979 kicked off quite possibly what was the most
\nfruitful year of Frank Zappa’s musical life. In a year that gave us
\nthe classic disc
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> and the love-it-or-hate-it release
\nJoe’s Garage<\/i>, things kicked off with a release that might
\nsurprise people with its quality.<\/p>\n
One review ago, I referred to Warner Brothers’s decision to axe
\nthe four-record set
\nLather<\/i> and split it up into separate releases as a “fabulous
\nfuck-up”. That fuck-up was no more fabulous than with the release
\nof
\nSleep Dirt<\/i>, containing unquestionably the best material from
\nthe whole set. An instrumental collection (marred by the
\nre-inclusion of vocal tracks – more on that in a minute) that
\nchallenged and excited the listener, this proved to be one of
\nZappa’s unheralded masterpieces.<\/p>\n
Kicking things off is a challenging track to get through,
\n“Filthy Habits” – a track which contains many of Zappa’s trademark
\nstyle shifts when one least expects them. Yet this song proves to
\nbe charming in its own ways, leading into the absolutely fantastic
\ncabaret-like pastiche that is “Flambay”. Simply put, from “Flambay”
\non, Zappa can do absolutely no wrong. One cannot help but fall in
\nlove with the musical picture that Zappa and crew paint on
\n“Flambay,” while “Regyptian Strut” (another track that features
\nmore re-recorded drum tracks a la
\nCruising With Ruben & The Jets<\/i>) is a marvel to behold, a
\nsong that pushes musician and listener to the breaking point
\nwithout ever crossing any unspoken boundaries.<\/p>\n
What makes
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> unique is that the music contained herein gets
\nZappa’s whole message across without a single note sung (the only
\n“vocals” coming from an aside Zappa makes on “Time Is Money”). So,
\nlosing the “toilet humor” that Zappa would fine-tune to the point
\nof brilliance on
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i>, Zappa is left to only his musical genius,
\nwhich he makes the most of throughout this disc.<\/p>\n
I did not expect to like
\nSleep Dirt<\/i>, having had the cassette sit in storage for a
\ndecade. In fact, I don’t recall liking it when I first bought the
\ntape. Three simple words: I was
\nwrong<\/b>. Quite possibly forgotten due to the sheer volume of
\nmusic that Zappa released in a short time – according to the
\ntimeline on Zappa’s website, seven albums were released in a
\ntwo-year span –
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> remains a disc that demands to be heard, that
\ndemands to be respected, that demands to be revered. In all
\nregards, its demands are quite reasonable.<\/p>\n
The CD reissue, though, makes the only black marks I can find.
\nNo offense is meant to vocalist Thana Harris, but the three bonus
\ntracks that include vocals break the whole pattern for me. These
\ntracks, as Francois Couture mentions on All-Music Guide, may be
\ncloser to the vision that Zappa had when he first compiled
\nLather<\/i>, but they dare to tamper with both the strength of
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> as an instrumental album and the memories of
\nlong-time Zappa fans. (Not that Zappa ever had problems tampering
\nwith those memories before – back to the re-recording of drum
\ntracks again.) As hard as I tried, I could not get into the
\nvocalized versions of tracks like “Flambay” and “Time Is Money”.
\nThe magic, simply, was sucked out of them.<\/p>\n
Still, this is a minor complaint about bonus tracks, and when
\nall is said and done, the original seven tracks that make up
\nSleep Dirt<\/i> still prove to be one of Zappa’s best releases in
\nhis career.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5625],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38528","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38528","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=38528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38528"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}