Lather (Rykodisc 10874-76)

 

Tracklist

 

Disc One:   1. Re-gyptian strut 2. Naval Aviation in Art 3. A little green rosetta 4. Duck duck goose 5. Down in the de dew 6. For the young sophisticate 7 Tryin' to grow a chin 8. Broken hearts are for assholes 9. The legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit 10. Lemme take you to the beach 11. Revised music for guitar and low budget orchestra 12. RDNZL

Disc Two:   1. Honey, don't you want a man like me? 2. The black page #1 3. Big leg emma 4. Punky's whips 5. Flambe' 6. The purple lagoon 7. Pedro's dowry 8. Lather 9. Spider of destiny 10. Duke of orchstral prunes

Disc Three:   1. Filthy habits 2. Titties and beer 3. The ocean is the ultimate solution 4. The adventures of Greggary Peccary Bonus Tracks: 5. Regyptian strut (1993) 6. Leather goods 7. Revenge of the knick knack people 8. Time is money

Rating: *** 1/2
Here finally is the great lost Zappa album of the 1970's!  Even though much of this 3 CD (originally intended as a 4 record box set) set has appeared in somewhat different form on Zappa in New York, Sleep dirt, Studio tan, and Orchestral Favorites, Lather is still an essential element in the Zappa catalog.  It is exceptional tour de force of his composition and perfomace of the era and the whole packaging concept provides a whole new level of originality missing in the aforementioned offerings.  Add to this several alternate performaces of numbers we all know and several unreleased bonus tracks, and Lather must be considered an essential part of your CD collection.
 
By the way, you can pretty well ignore the liner notes.  Where do they get these guys anyway???

Lather Source Code: an interesting discussion on what's new and what's not on this release taken from alt.fan.frank.zappa.  I found this interesting enough to save...