Content
Five of the album's seven tracks were intended for the shelved album Läther. "Flambay" and "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" originally appeared in significantly shortened versions, but are presented in their original edits on the released Sleep Dirt. Zappa's intended title for the album was Hot Rats III. The change in title by Warner was also in violation of Zappa's contract. When Zappa re-issued the recordings he did not change the title. The 1979 LP version of Sleep Dirt was entirely instrumental. However, with the CD release in 1991 Zappa added new overdubs to the recordings.
Zappa asked singer Thana Harris to add vocals to 3 songs. Zappa had originally envisioned Flambay, Spider of Destiny, and Time Is Money as part of his abandoned 1972 musical, Hunchentoot, and thus, these songs were originally intended to be sung.
Chad Wackerman also overdubbed drums on Flambay, Spider of Destiny and Regyptian Strut. Wackerman's parts replaced the original drum tracks. The first Barking Pumpkin CDs retained the original version of Regyptian Strut, but this was changed for later releases. Both versions of the track can now be found on the Läther CD. Wackerman did not overdub drums on Time is Money even though he is credited for this in the CD notes. The 2012 Universal Music reissue reverts to the original vinyl version of the album.
The creature shown on the cover is Hedorah from the 1971 Toho film Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.
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