Should Zappa's Läther be listed as 1977 release?

For those who don't know, the album was not widely released to the public as all of Frank's other albums were. This was due to his label at the time, Warner Brothers, not wanting to release the 4 LP set because they did not think it would be commercially viable to do so. Long story short, the album got re-edited by Zappa himself into 4 separate albums (Zappa In New York, though this album was originally supposed to be released anyway, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites). These four albums eventually contained music not found on Läther, and vis versa.

Now, having done further research, I found that the album WAS released for a moment, in fact, there was cover art and everything

Look familiar?

What happened was, Warner Brothers refused to release it. When that happened, Zappa pitched the album to other record labels to release it as a sort of "special project", but somehow, Warner was able to keep the other labels from releasing it. Before they did that, Zappa did get the Phonogram label to press copies, and a release date was set. Some promo copies had been distributed as well.

The label even had a distribution company, "Edison Record", who released the album in 1977. Here is side A of the first vinyl:

Again, as I said, Warner somehow got the labels to discontinue pressing the album (probably threat of lawsuit), and Zappa got mad so he played the entire album on the California radio station KROQ, telling listeners to record it and pass along copies.

The reason I say we should list the album as a 1977 release is because of everything I just said. It was a completed album, with the packaging and everything completed, with some promo distribution. But due to legal problems, which can be read about HERE, among other places, it was not "truly" released until 1996 (and 2012)

So, shall we edit the album on Frank's PA page, listing it as a 1977 release, but including notes in the album info that it's release was prematurely cut short and wasn't released until 1996? 

Most other sites i've seen about Zappa's music has the album listed like this: Läther - 1977 (1996) or Läther - 1977/1996.

But Lather was an album with full intentions by Zappa, to be released in 1977. HolyMoly, you also made a good point about the practicality of it being in chronological order. Also, a newbie Zappa fan, who enjoys the 70s stuff, might miss out on Lather if he is using PA as a guide, as it's on the bottom section of his studio albums. I personally got into the albums that came out of the Warner Bros. fiasco first. When I heard Lather for the first time, I couldn't believe how amazing it was and that it should have just been released normally like all the other albums. I find Lather superior than any of the fall-out albums, either separately or together.

Point taken though, this could get messy if we over-think it. 

I'll look at the guidelines again, but I think you make a strong case.  I think the strongest case against this change would be that it was never GENERALLY available in legitimate form until 1996, barring a handful of test pressings (which I wouldn't call a general release).  But on the other hand, nowadays, an "official release" (i.e. generally available) can be as simple as a single person putting stuff up on Bandcamp, with no record company involvement at all, even if only 5 people have heard it -- and that's kind of what happened here.  Zappa did a DIY release, and it was only halted because of legal details.

Maybe I'll bring it up at the ZART holiday picnic.