Studio Tan

There are differences between the vinyl and the CDs, and most or all (this hasn't been cleared up yet) seem concentrated to "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary", which has several little bits edited out on the CD, but a cold end instead of the vinyl fade-out. All CDs are digitally identical, but glitches gradually creep into the works with each subsequent revision, although in absolutely no consistent trend.

ESSENTIAL VERSIONS FOR COMPLETISTS: The CD (preferably either a Zappa Records or "first pressing" Barking Pumpkin, although there's some indication that some later versions are fine), the vinyl and/or Läther (most people will be satisfied with just "Läther"). However, insane completists may want to drool over a cassette from 1987 known as The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa, available briefly back then from Barfko and Guitar World magazine - it seems to have had a 2-minute excerpt from an otherwise unreleased Studio Tan remix with Chad Wackerman's drum overdubs!

Issues

• Original vinyl (DiscReet DSK 2291 in the US, September 15 1978; K 59210 in the UK, October 1978)
• Spanish vinyl (Hispavox / Warner Brothers / DiscReet S 90086, 1978)
• German vinyl (WEA DiscReet DIS 59 210)
• French vinyl (DiscReet 59210)
• Greek vinyl (Warner Brothers 59210)
• Japanese vinyl (DiscReet P-10612D, white-label promo also reported, including lyric sheet for "Greggery Peccary")
• Brazilian vinyl
• Original cassette (DiscReet MFD 2291 in the US)
• 8-track (Reprise M8D2291 in the US (picture sleeve, stereo), Discreet M8D 2291 in Canada, 1978)
• Original CD (Barking Pumpkin D2 74237 in the US, Zappa Records CDZAP 44 in the UK, September 24 1991; VACK 5085 in Japan)
• Zappa Records cassette (TZAPPA44)
• 1991 cassette (Barking Pumpkin, September 4 1991)
• 1995 CD (Ryko RCD 10526, May 2 1995; VACK 5085 in Japan, renumbered 5220 in 1998)
• Japanese paper-sleeve CD (Ryko/VACK 1234, April 27 2002)
   
• Bootleg CD(s)
   
• [unreleased remix] (link to the Weirdo Discography)

And on the weird side, parts of this album seem to have been issued in Poland as a set of flexi-disc postcards.

Track Titles

The vinyl, cassette and 8-track releases that were put out by Warner Brothers had "Greggery Peccary", "Let Me Take You to the Beach" and  "REDUNZL". Zappa's re-issues had the corrected titles "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary", "Lemme Take You to the Beach" and "RDNZL".

Relation to LÄTHER

Four Studio Tan tracks appear on the Läther album. The differences between the versions are as follows [full Läther walkthrough by Zoot]:

• "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary": Two different mixes and edits.
• "Revised music for Guitar & Low-Budget Orchestra": No differences.
• "Lemme Take You to the Beach": No differences.
• "RDNZL": No differences.

Studio Tan is thus the sole entry from the "Ugly Covers" period to be represented on Läther almost in its entirety.

Original Vinyl

Track list:

1. Greggery Peccary

2. Let Me take You to the Beach
3. Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra
4. REDUNZL

From "Tinseltown Rebellion" by John Bamford, in Hi-Fi Answers, November 1986 (quote provided by Biffy the Elephant Shrew):

To this day I've thought those albums [Sleep Dirt, Studio Tan & Orchestral Favorites] had a weird sound. In talking to Zappa recently I learned that although Warners had the master tapes, he had the Dolby line-up tones. (He likes to be present during disc mastering.) So the equalization on those recordings is all wrong!

German Vinyl

From Harry de Swart:

My LPs of Studio Tan (matrix number WEA 59210), Orchestral Favorites & Sleep Dirt have a German label but it mentions "STEMRA" instead of "GEMA". STEMRA is a Dutch firm which collects the money for the performing artist and protects their rights. All other German issues of Zappa albums have GEMA on the label!

Original Cassette

The DiscReet MFD 2291 cassette has the exact same track listing as the vinyl.

8-Track

1. [The Adventures of] Greggery Peccary (Beg.)
2. [The Adventures of] Greggery Peccary (Conc.)
3. Let Me [sic] Take You to the Beach ; Revised Music for Guitar & Low-Budget Orchestra
4. Redunzl [sic]

Original CD (multiple variants)

Resequenced, and with a noticeably different mix/edit of Greggery Peccary as compared to the vinyl (see the section below for an elaboration on the Peccary differences).

Track list:

1. The Adventures of Greggery Peccary (remix/reedit)

2. Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra
3. Lemme take You to the Beach
4. RDNZL

Like many of the Barking Pumpkin discs, "Studio Tan" had a "stealth variation" introduced in a later pressing. Unlike "Roxy" or "Sleep Dirt," though, the variation here is entirely unintentional:

• Original Barking Pumpkin discs without an "Re-1" in the matrix code--the little numbers around the rim of the CD itself--are preferable, as they contain the album without any glitches.
• Original Barking Pumpkin discs with an "Re-1" in the matrix code are digitally identical to the first version, except for a brief dropout in RDNZL at 2:26

(nobody's reported on the Zappa Records disc yet, but past experience would suggest that it is the same of the first two versions above)

This may sound more than a bit confusing, so to summarize: if you don't care about a brief dropout in RDNZL, both discs are the same.

1991 Cassette

Like the original CD, presumably.

1995 CD

The 1995 CD is digitally identical to the second Barking Pumpkin CD (with the "Re-1" in the matrix code). Unfortunately, it introduces one additional error: something that sounds like a "digital skip" (what Biffy describes as a "nasty glitch that sounds like a bad edit") at 19:19 in Greggery Peccary [Ed: Clearly, the digital tape used for the master of this album was prone to errors!]. Consequently, the earlier edtion(s) is preferable. Official Ryko statement: "New master. New timing sheet." [full statement]

Note that apparently some 1995 CDs do not have this glitch; in particular, sh.tv forum member Black Elk points to one he bought in Europe with the matrix Y13132 A4 P2 310526-2 01 M1S1 that doesn't have either this or the RDNZL glitch. Can anybody help up get to the bottom of this?

The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

From Neil in the UK:

Has anyone noticed the strange edit in the CD version of "Greggery Peccary"? There's a bit missing! Maybe a couple of seconds of music has been edited out compared to the original. Its the percussion bit after Zappa says "where they keep the government buildings".

From Simon Roberts:

"Greggery Peccary" has a few bits snipped out on the CD relative to the vinyl, but it has a full ending instead of a fade out.

From Román García Albertos:

The Studio Tan LP and Läther versions are exactly the same, except for the fade-out at the end of the Studio Tan version. The Läther version has almost 20 seconds extra. The Studio Tan CD (CDZAP 44) has a different mix, a different stereo image (in the beginning, Greggery's voice is in the left and right channels, not in the middle), and some edits:

• There's an edit at 03:28 (Studio Tan CD): 7 SECONDS of music edited out. (Hey, man, at this very moment the Spanish football team Real Madrid has won the European Cup! Hala Madrid! Hala Madrid!)
• There's another edit at 14:41 (just before Greggery says "What?"): this time 13 SECONDS of trombone madness edited out.

The end is the same both on Läther and the Studio Tan CD, only the Läther version edits with a guitar sound and "Läther ...". The Studio Tan CD just ends. We can hear the reverb of the last note until it fades out. The fade-out of the Studio Tan vinyl ends in minute 20:21 of the Studio Tan CD, so there's 14 SECONDS more both on the Läther and CD versions.

Japanese Paper-Sleeve Version (2001-2002)

Starting in 2001, Video Arts Music released a limited-edition series (2000 copies each) of Zappa CDs in paper sleeves - miniature LP sleeves. There was nothing special about this series other than the covers, which were very well done - inserts and "bonuses" were reproduced, the albums that originally had gatefold covers got little miniature gatefolds, and cover track lists were exactly as on the corresponding LPs, even in cases where the CD has bonus tracks or a different track order. Included in this series were some entries that never had "proper" LP issues, i.e. Läther. Additionally, some rarities--like the "green/gold" cover of Chunga's Revenge--were reproduced as special items in this run.

We need to stress that the sound quality of these discs matches the US Ryko issues, which they are clearly derived from. These are collectors items, not new remastered editions.

LATE-2005-UPDATE: Ryko USA has apparently been importing the overstock of these releases to sell as domestic "special editions," causing the speculators who paid top dollar for the entire collection to hari-kari themselves. This includes some of the discs that, as of August 2005, were pretty hard to find ("Money" and others).

Bootleg CD(s)

The long deleted vinyl version of this album has been bootlegged on CD at least once, coupled with Sleep Dirt. [read all about it in the son of the alt.fan.frank-zappa Bootleg FAQ] (At least one issue of this coupling is on the same label as at least one issue of a bootleg CD of the (uncensored) vinyl version Zappa in New York.)

Questions

• Is there any other differences between the vinyl and the CD than the CD having the Läther version of "Greggery Peccary" with a fade-out?
• Any details on 8-track versions?
• Any regional peculiarities?
• Is the Greek vinyl legit?

Additional Informants

• Michael J Popil
• Biffy the Elephant Shrew
• Mrs Lone
• "Studio" Tan Mitsugu
• Steve Jones

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 19:02

Search WWW Search all of lukpac.org

DISCLAIMER: people quoted may not share webmaster's opinions (on James Brown); information culled from many sources with no guarantees; site may look bad in other than latest Internet Explorer for Windows (I wish I were skilled enough to change this last one).