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Frank Zappa: Sleep Dirt

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Zappa Records
Released: 1979.01.19
Time:
 38:39
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Frank Zappa
Rating: ***....... (3/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.zappa.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2001.04.03
Price in €: 7,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Filthy Habits (Zappa) - 7:33
[2] Flambay (Zappa) - 4:54
[3] Spider of Destiny (Zappa) - 2:33
[4] Regyptian Strut (Zappa) - 4:12
[5] Time Is Money (Zappa) - 2:49
[6] Sleep Dirt (Zappa) - 3:21
[7] The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution (Zappa) - 13:17

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


FRANK ZAPPA - Guitar, Percussion, Arranger, Keyboards, Vocals

GEORGE DUKE - Keyboards, Vocals
BRUCE FOWLER - Brass
CHESTER THOMPSON - Drums
CHAD WACKERMAN - Overdubs
TERRY BOZZIO - Drums
NAPOLEON MURPHY BROCK - Saxophone
THANA HARRIS - Vocals
PATRICK O'HEARN - Bass
DAVE PARLATO - Bass
RUTH UNDERWOOD - Percussion, Keyboards
JAMES YOUMAN - Bass

BOB STONE - Mastering, Remastering
STEPHEN MARCUSSEN - Mastering
GARY PANTER - Art Direction
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


The material on this album originally was intended to be part of a four-record set called Läther, prepared for release in 1977. Then Frank Zappa got into a disagreement with his record company, Warner Bros., and Läther was split up into several different releases as part of a contractual agreement. The results were dumped on the market during 1978 and 1979, while Zappa moved on to his own record label. Sleep Dirt consists of miscellaneous tracks recorded between 1974 and 1976, including "Flambay," "Spider Of Destiny," and "Time Is Money," songs that apparently were part of an unissued Zappa musical/rock opera from 1972 called Hunchentoot. They are sung by soparano Thana Harris. It's impossible to say what the entire work would have been like, but this album is little more than musical fragments.

William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide



First released in 1979, one of three albums (with STUDIO TAN and ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES) made up of material originally intended for the unreleased box set LATHER. The box set would have completed his Warner Brothers' contract, but they let the albums trickle out separately with minimal packaging or promotion. Hence the original release was unauthorized by FZ and went out-of-print in a hurry; it's now here in fully Zappa-approved form. Material, recorded between 1974-1976, also includes some songs from the unstaged FZ science fiction musical HUNCHENTOOT. Track highlights: "Regyptian Strut" and "The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution."

From the Label



Why were vocal tracks added on the CD reissue? SLEEP DIRT has always been one of my favorite Zappa instrumental albums, so I made sure I picked up a CD version of it when it became available. The remastering is excellent; the original vinyl LP sounded pretty muddy, but on the CD reissue even the little details of the percussion come through loud and clear. But why, oh, why did somebody add vocal tracks? I have nothing in particular against vocalist Thana Harris, but I liked the instrumental versions of (e.g.) "Flambay" and "Spider of Destiny" as they were. The vocals, besides being an unnecessary revision of an album that originally lacked them, tend to cover up the music - including but not limited to some brilliant keyboard work by George Duke on "Flambay." (Fortunately, most of the cuts were not altered in this way, or I'd have given the result far fewer than four stars.) What an irritating change - especially since I didn't know about it when I bought the CD. I don't care about preserving the missing lyrics from "Hunchentoot" (anybody who wants to do that can write a book); I just wanted a CD version of the original SLEEP DIRT. (If FZ himself approved the change, I might alter my opinion a little. But his musical judgment was usually better than that.) That said, however, the remastered version of "Regyptian Strut" is still worth the price of the CD.

Scott Ryan from Cuyahoga Falls OH
 

 L y r i c s


FILTHY HABITS

Instrumental


FLAMBAY

He used to be very kind in his own crude way
He wasn't always like I wanted him to be
He wasn't smart, he wasn't handsome either
But he thrilled me when he drilled me
and I never loved a monster quite like he...

Because his love was so flambay
His kisses burned me so, his kisses turned me
from a queen on a throne to a shriveling spool
Here I stand all alone, a spider's fool

When it's me he needs to fondle his tool
I guess some bugs are just that way
He don't really need your love
He don't really need you
to be there when his hair gets matted and grey
With a broom cleaning his room from the mess he made that day
All those earthling worms he nibbled away

Oh Hunchentoot my love, how could you desert me now?
Oh Hunchentoot you brute, can't you see I want you?
Stay with me flagrantly
and we'll have ecstasy for all eternity

Because your love is so flambay
You kisses burn me so, your kisses turn me
from a queen on a throne to a shriveling spool
I don't mind if you're unkind 'cause spiders rule

Yes you are real cool
with those little webs you spool
and all your spider drool
oh let me float in your pool


SPIDER OF DESTINY

Listen carefully, spider of destiny
You must heed the call of cosmo-biology
Listen to me

If you eat the earthlings now
things will all be fine and then
we'll repair our love somehow
and resume the busy schedule of our ruthless conquest once again

Listen carefully, spider of destiny
I will not allow this marvelous opportunity to be taken from me
Taken from me...

Eat the earth people, eat them and chew them and brutally
stomp on the rest of what's left and then report to me
for the conquest of earth and the moon and the stars
and the space in between, all the comets and stars will be ours

Eat the earth people, eat them and chew them and brutally
stomp on the rest of what's left...


REGYPTIAN STRUT

Instrumental


TIME IS MONEY

Time is money...
But Space is a long, long time!

Perhaps you are surprised
To see I speak your language?

But I have been monitoring
Your Earthly broadcasts for
Many years...
Many years...
And the reception on my little planet
Is extremely fine!

Time is money...
But Space is a long, long time!
On my lonely throne
In the cosmic night I ponder the vast expanses
Between your puny world and mine!

From my Couch-In-The-Sky,
As my planet goes by,
I behold all your misery below there!
I have seen all your lying,
And crying, and dying,
And, believe me,
YOUR planet is NOWHERE!

SPACE is a VERY LONG TIME!

(And if the equation,
As set forth above,
Is PROVED when we get to
The BOTTOM LINE...
The 'Powers Financial'
I'll hold o'er your world
Will complete my fantastic design!)

And the whole 'EQUIVALENT EARTH' SHALL BE MINE!

And the whole 'EQUIVALENT EARTH' SHALL BE MINE!

And the whole 'EQUIVALENT EARTH' SHALL BE MINE!

MINE! MINE!


SLEEP DIRT

Heh!

Got that tempo?
Hm hm

Heh!
Gettin' tired?
No, fingers got stuck!


THE OCEAN IS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION

Instrumental

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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