The material on this album was 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 in 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 wre apparently part of an unissued Zappa musical/rock opera from 1972 called Hunchentoot.
They are sung by soprano Thana Harris.
It's impossible to say what the entire work would have been like, but this album is little more than musical fragments.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Filthy HabitsFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 07:33 | 17 MB | 48 MB |
| 2 | FlambayFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 04:54 | 11 MB | 29 MB |
| 3 | Spider of DestinyFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 02:33 | 5 MB | 16 MB |
| 4 | Regyptian StrutFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 04:13 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 5 | Time Is MoneyFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 02:49 | 6 MB | 16 MB |
| 6 | Sleep DirtFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 03:21 | 7 MB | 19 MB |
| 7 | The Ocean Is the Ultimate SolutionFrank Zappa | Frank Zappa | Play | 13:17 | 30 MB | 93 MB |
| 38 mins | 88 MB | |||||
| 38 mins | 248 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terry Bozzio | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 2 | George Duke | Guest Artist, Keyboards |
| 3 | Bruce Fowler | Brass, Guest Artist |
| 4 | Bob Ludwig | Mastering |
| 5 | Michael Mesker | Digital Layout |
| 6 | Patrick O'Hearn | Bass |
| 7 | Gary Panter | Illustrations |
| 8 | Dave Parlato | Bass |
| 9 | Melanie Starks | Production Manager |
| 10 | Chester Thompson | Drums |
| 11 | Joe Travers | Transfers |
| 12 | Ruth Underwood | Percussion |
| 13 | Edgard Varèse | Quotation Author |
| 14 | James "Bird Legs" Youman | Bass, Guitar |
| 15 | Frank Zappa | Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Primary Artist, Producer, Synthesizer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |