SLEEP DIRT

Frank Zappa continues to be the most misunderstood person in rock music, and his album "Sleep Dirt" continues to be one of the most misunderstood albums in his discography. It seems that there are conflicting stories out there about this album that is causing a lot of confusion, and I hope this review will help clear things up.

The Story of "Sleep Dirt"

"Sleep Dirt" came into being because of the now famous lawsuit with Warner Bros. that plagued Zappa and his music during the last half of the 1970s. For those that don't know the story, Warner Bros. (WB) demanded more albums from Zappa than what he was legally obligated to give them. This dispute came about because Zappa had given them a 4 disc album called "Lather" and WB rejected it because they thought they couldn't market a 4 disc album. So, to be nice, Zappa made 4 individual albums with material that came from these 4 discs: "Zappa in New York", "Studio Tan", "Sleep Dirt" and "Orchestral Favourites".

WB released "Zappa in New York", but then insisted that Zappa still owed them 4 more albums. Frustrated, Zappa then tried to release "Lather" on another label and WB sued, so he had to put that project on ice. WB grew impatient and in 78 and 79, released the other 3 albums without Zappa's consent. The label also commissioned album art that Zappa didn't approve, and the recordings were taken from the tapes that Zappa had provided WB without any overdubs or other studio enhancements. The sound was not up to Zappa's standards, plus the songs were taken out of sequence and other tracks were used that were intended for the shelved albums.

"Sleep Dirt" ended up getting the blunt end of the deal. First of all, Zappa wanted to call the album "Hot Rats III". Second, only two of the tracks that appear on this album were intended for this album; "Flambay" and "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution". The other 5 tracks were meant to be used on "Lather". WB took the liberty to use the shelved tracks and released the record without vocals that were intended to be added before the music was released. Hence, the original LP version does not have vocals, but the tracks are all instrumental. When the CD was reissued in 1991, the vocals (sung by Thana Harris) were overdubbed in along with drums by Chad Wackerman, and this turned into a completely different album. Thirdly, as I mentioned before, WB used the master tapes without Zappa's consent. Zappa had the dolby versions of the tracks, but was not part of the production process since WB released the album without his okay.

In other words, if Zappa had his way, and if these 4 albums had been released as originally intended, we would have had an epic 4-disc album that showcased most of Zappa's styles. Instead, we ended up with 3 albums that were sort of sub-par, yet interestingly enough, still attest to Zappa's brilliance in music, just not as well as they should have. We would have also had what would probably have ended up being an excellent album called "Hot Rats III", which, by the way, would have sounded very little like what "Sleep Dirt" ended up being. As far as "Lather" is concerned, it was released later posthumously.

The main reason for explaining all of that is to clear up the reasons why this album is so strange and inconsistent, it originally wasn't supposed to be an album. But, this is what we ended up with. So, if you own an original vinyl, you probably have the all-instrumental versions of the tracks. If you own a CD after 2012, you have overdubbed vocals and drums. Either way, Zappa didn't have any say in the final production of this album.

Now let's get on with the tracks, because they all have stories of their own.

Track by Track History and Analysis

The album begins with "Filthy Habits" (7:33), a track that, in his live shows, Zappa used as part of the famous "Poodle" routine which was made up of "Stink-Foot", "Poodle Lecture", "Dirty Love" and finally "Filthy Habits". This track was originally intended to be on another Zappa-shelved 2 disc project that was to be called "The Night of the Iron Sausage". The album that was released in its place was "Zoot Allures" which was a single album and this track was left off of that album. This track also shows up on the posthumous "Lather" as it was intended, in a shorter version (6:02). This instrumental features Zappa on guitar and keys, Dave Parlato on bass and Terry Bozzio on drums. The edits on "Lather" come at 2:59 ? 3:07 and at 4:49 ? 6:04 in case you were interested. This is a dark and moderately slow instrumental featuring Zappa's moaning and whining guitar work. Completely recorded in-studio in 1976, it is a bit dissonant and quite heavy.

"Flambay (4:54)" is one of the vocal numbers. Since the vocals were added in later editions, it is apparent that this must be a part of some other idea in Zappa's head that didn't quite come to fruition as he would have liked. This track was part of a longer comedy sketch type opera that has become known as the "Hunchentoot" comedy. The tracks included on "Sleep Dirt" are out of order from their appearance in the comedy, and, of course, is not the entire story. The vocal numbers in the CD version are from the character named "Drakma, The Queen of Cosmic Greed". Again, WB released this unfinished and out of sequence, but at least Zappa was able to get Bob Harris' wife Thana Harris to sing the somewhat goofy operatic parts. The music is definitely of the avant-garde style, is done in a sort of dramatic way, as it would have been in the sketch. The track was basically recorded in 1974 with the overdubs added much later. Along with Harris and Wackerman, we have George Duke on keys, Patrick O'Hearn on bass, Ruth Underwood on percussion and if you have the LP, Chester Thompson on drums. On its own, it doesn't make much sense, but with the explanation above, it might make a bit more sense, but taken out of context, it just doesn't seem to fit with what Zappa intended. If you have the original LP, then it just sounds like a complex instrumental, which in my opinion, is better. The version on "Lather" is called "Flambe" and is cut to 2:05 with the vocals removed.

The following track "Spider of Destiny" (2:33) is another vocal taken from this comedy sketch. It has the same lineup as the previous track except Zappa contributes some guitar to it.

"Regyptian Strut" (4:12) was intended for the "Lather" album, but again was place on WB's "Sleep Dirt" album. It is thankfully an instrumental which starts with it's regal introduction and then showcases the band. The versions on "Sleep Dirt" CD and "Lather" are the same. The "Sleep Dirt" LP has Chester Thompson's drums while the 1995 CD has Chad Wackerman's overdubbed drums, but all other issues are the same as the original LP. Other than that, you get Zappa on percussion, George Duke on keys, Bruce Fowler on brass, James "Birdlegs" Youmans on bass, and the excellent Ruth Underwood on percussion.

"Time Is Money" (2:47) is the last of the vocal tracks. It pretty much has the same line-up as the other vocal tracks. It also makes a reference to the "Sofa" from past Zappa hijinx that Zappaphiles with understand, but other than that, it just doesn't stand on it's own the way WB used it.

"Sleep Dirt" (3:21) is one of the very few examples of an acoustic guitar solo recorded in studio by Frank Zappa, which he admits is one of his best in-studio examples. He complained that he never got a good in-studio guitar solo except for this one. The only other person along for this track is James "Birdlegs" Youmans playing acoustic rhythm guitar. At the end of this quite amazing piece of solo work is some banter between Zappa and Birdlegs when Zappa called him out on the tempo and he complained that his fingers got stuck. This unfortunately brought a premature end to the track.

The album ends with a track that was intended for the Hot Rats III album, "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution" (13:15). This one involves some very interesting guitar from Zappa where he tuned his guitar strings all independent of each other, sort of similar to the sound heard on some Captain Beefheart tracks. I won't go into details because only a guitar player would appreciate it, but it results in a very interesting sound. You almost would believe that Zappa sped up the guitar part on the recording as he was known to do that, but that is not the case. At 7 minutes, Zappa changes to a guitar tuned "normally". The original intention of this track was to edit it down to 5:32, which is how it appears on the "Lather" release. The "Lather" release skips the first 4:43 minutes, then edits out a short 4 second section at the 7:30 mark. The line-up for this amazing instrumental that shows off Zappa's skills is FZ on guitar and synth, Patrick O'Hearn on string and electric bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums.

In Summary

So, that long spiel will hopefully clear up some questions on this odd album. It is actually a mixture of various tracks that were available that were meant for other projects and released by a greedy record label against Zappa's will. Obviously, all of these tracks would have been better off if kept in their original formats and then finalized by Zappa as most of the rest of his music was. All in all, it's not a bad album, especially if you get the version of it without the vocals. When they are added, they are out of place and completely inconsistent with the rest of the album, and it is no wonder that people listen to this album with a big question mark over their heads. But this is what we are now stuck with, and if you mostly ignore the vocal tracks, it's quite good, a bit more avant-garde than most of his "rock" albums, but I still enjoy it and own the original vinyl. That is how I would suggest you get this album. Or get the "Lather" album.

Share this FRANK ZAPPA review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to TCat
• Report this review (#2286455)
• Buy FRANK ZAPPA music online with PA partners
• Show all FRANK ZAPPA MP3/Stream
• Go to FRANK ZAPPA page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Sleep Dirt page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for FRANK ZAPPA related discussions