FRANK ZAPPA - Läther

Item Description

4 x Vinyl,
LP Album Test Pressing

A Mercury Records test pressing (with inserts) of Frank Zappa's unreleased album. This test pressing set was made for the aborted October, 1977 Mercury/Polygram release. The four discs have Zappa's name and the album's catalog number written on each label. Also included are the original 4 pre-release information sheets, with titles, publishing, and release information. Everything is contained in a Polygram/Mercury record envelope.

Additional notes:
“Läther” (pronounced 'leather') was originally conceived as a four-record box set in 1977. When Frank delivered the album to Warner Bros. Records, the label refused to release it, telling him that he owed them four separate albums. Zappa re-edited and reconfigured some of the 'Läther 'material into the individual albums “Zappa In New York”, “Studio Tan”, “Sleep Dirt” and “Orchestral Favorites”. After releasing “Zappa In New York”, Warner refused to pay him or to release the rest of the albums. When Zappa attempted to get a distribution deal with Mercury/Phonogram to release “Läther”, Warner Bros. decided to release the individual albums he had delivered to them, and the release of “Läther”' was cancelled. In December 1977 Zappa took matters into his own hands by playing the entire “Läther” work on Pasadena, CA. radio station KROQ, instructing listeners to record it. Prior to 1996, when Rykodisc released an expanded version on CD, “Läther” was only available on bootlegs which had been sourced either from tapes of the radio broadcast or from copies of the test pressing.