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  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A4ther" rel="nofollow - 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.

Of course, common sense tells me that if I'm looking at an FZ discography, it makes more sense to me to put it in 1977 (that's where place it in my own chronological collection, after all), and therefore it makes sense from a practical standpoint to put it in 1977 on PA.  It was a complete work that was intended for release, and it would have been released if not for some legal BS.  

So I say - let's change it.  to hell with Warner Brothers.

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.

Think about this. Frank Zappa released ACTUAL bootlegs of some of his live shows, as official live albums, and they're all listed on his PA page under the live albums section. So now what? 

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

Part of adding an album on PA is you have to use the original artwork that was used on the album originally, not artwork used for a re-issue or something like that. Technically, the Lather artwork with the cow (though I do like it) is the wrong art work for Lather, based on the PA guidelines.

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.

True that it wasn't "generally" available, but I've heard from many of the older members here, that after an album had been out for a while, record stores would stock new albums and finding older albums was very hard until CDs came along. It doesn't sound like that much of a difference in regards to Lather.

"... FZ wanted to release it with another record company, as a special project. He asked for an assignment of his contract from his production deal to the record company direct in order to advance the possibility of being able to do "special projects" (like box sets would you believe). Briefly the record company agreed (one record appeared on this label), then reneged....."

"One record"?

I believe the Edison release was a bootleg, recorded from the radio show where a pissed off Zappa played the entire album, expecting it to get out this way.

 

I would say leave the release date as when the album was released by the ZFT

 

I  totally disagree.

 

Because official release dates are used here. 

 

Other, less reliable sources say the Edison LPs were a "personal pressing" (whatever that means).

 

Because of his contract with WB, Zappa could not have legally released the album at that time, lending credence to the bootleg label.

I agree, having further inquired at zappa.com, I did not realize the Edison records copies were bootlegs. My bad.

 

Test pressings are not made for official release.  They are made for the label, band and affiliates to listen, and decide if the record is ready for release.  Hence the term "test pressing".   Zappa's intentions notwithstanding, the album wasn't officially released until 1996.

 

I think it would do the site a disservice if we list the earlier date.  Since a few Discreet copies are said to exist, a note can be added to the album listing saying so. Mentioning Zappa's radio broadcast, with a plea to bootleg the album also could lend some clarity to the issue.