Studio Tan

Studio Tan
Studio album by Frank Zappa
Released	September 15, 1978
Recorded	1969, 1974 – 1976 at The Record Plant, LA; Royce Hall, UCLA and Caribou Studios, Nederland, Colorado
Genre	Experimental rock, jazz fusion, hard rock, progressive rock
Length	39:18
Label	DiscReet Records
Producer	Frank Zappa
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Frank Zappa chronology
Zappa in New York (1978) Studio Tan (1978) Sleep Dirt (1979)

Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label.

History

In early 1976, Zappa's relationship with manager and business partner Herb Cohen ended in litigation. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Brothers. When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to advance the possibility of being able to do special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warners briefly agreed, which led to the 1976 release of Zoot Allures on Warner. At this point, Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to DiscReet and Warner.

Early in 1977, Zappa claimed he delivered master-tape copies of four individual LPs to Warner Bros.(see [1]), which would have fulfilled all of Zappa's obligations to DiscReet and Warner, allowing him to move to another distributor for his next release. Zappa In New York, a two-LP set, was delivered first, complete with Zappa-approved artwork. This was followed closely by Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites, for which Zappa supplied tapes only. Believing that the material was sub-standard, Warner refused to pay Zappa for his production costs upon delivery of the four albums (over five discs).

Due to Warners' breach of contract, Zappa decided later in 1977 that he was contractually free to reconfigure the material on the five discs into one quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther. Though both collections contained unique material, the four-disc set was trimmed down from the original five-disc configuration, not the other way around, as has been commonly claimed. While Gail Zappa claims that "Läther was always conceived as a 4 disc set", she was apparently unaware that all the material on the original five-disc configuration was already recorded between 1971 and 1976, and completed a year before Läther. Zappa In New York was completed and released in 1977. It was later censored and re-sequenced by Warner, without Zappa's authorization, in 1978.

Zappa then attempted to forge a distribution deal with Mercury/Phonogram to release Läther on his new Zappa Records label. This led Warner Brothers to threaten legal action, preventing the release of the Läther compilation. Over 1978 and 1979, Warner elected to release the three remaining individual albums they still held: Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, and Orchestral Favorites. As Zappa had only delivered the tapes, the three individual albums were released with no musical credits. (see [2]) Warner commissioned their own sleeve art by Gary Panter, which was not approved by Zappa.

When this material was first issued on compact disc, Zappa made the decision to re-issue the individual albums, thus strengthening the argument that this was his original artistic intention. The material on the album was made available to the public again when Läther was finally officially released to the public in 1996, after Zappa's death.

Of the four albums that comprise Läther, Studio Tan is the only one of the individual albums to be represented in its near-entirety. It is also the only one that could have been possibly taken from the Läther tapes. The only clear differences are that "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is presented in a slightly different mix on Studio Tan and that the ending of the song had been shortened on the original vinyl release on DiscReet.

An excerpt from an unreleased alternate version of "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra" appears on the 1987 compilation The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa, with drum overdubs by Chad Wackerman.

Track listing

All compositions by Frank Zappa.

Side one

1. "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" – 20:40

Side two

1. "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra" – 7:36
2. "Lemme Take You to the Beach" – 2:44
3. "RDNZL" – 8:12

Personnel

• Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, percussion
• George Duke – keyboards
• John Berkman – piano
• Michael Zearott – conductor
• Pamela Goldsmith – viola
• Murray Adler – violin
• Sheldon Sanov – violin
• Jerry Kessler – cello
• Edward Meares – bass guitar
• Bruce Fowler – trombone
• Don Waldrop – trombone
• Jock Ellis – trombone
• Dana Hughes – bass trombone
• Earle Dumler – oboe
• JoAnn Caldwell McNab – bassoon
• Mike Altschul – flute
• Graham Young – trumpet
• Jay Daversa – trumpet
• Malcolm McNab – trumpet
• Ray Reed – flute
• Victor Morosco – saxophone
• John Rotella – woodwind instruments
• Alan Estes – percussion
• Emil Richards – percussion
• Tom Fowler – bass guitar
• Chester Thompson – drums
• Davey Moire – vocals
• Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
• Max Bennett – bass guitar
• Paul Humphrey – drums
• Don Brewer – bongos
• James "Bird Legs" Youmans – bass guitar
• Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

References

External links

• "FZ vs. Warner Bros. Story"
• "Biffy the Elephant Shrew looks at Läther"
• Album release information