Carvin_Abuser wrote:
It sorta bothered me that the beginning of The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution is chopped off on Lather. Anyone know why that is?
Frank shortened that track for the
Läther album, including the full version of the track would stretch the LP side out to 28 minutes, and FZ always wanted the best sound quality on his albums, no matter what format they existed in. You cannot put more than 25 minutes on an LP without affecting the sound quality: longer LP sides have smaller grooves.
This is the reason why "Didja Get Any Onya?" was extended for the CD release of
Weasels Ripped My Flesh: he couldn't fit the entire 6-minute recording on the record, because it would stretch out the LP sides. Same thing with "The Gumbo Variations" on
Hot Rats.
The only reason Frank could include the full version of "The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution" on the
Sleep Dirt vinyl is because he only had two other tracks on side two: a two minute track and a three minute track. The entire side two of that album was about 20 minutes long because he only had three cuts on it and two were short.
On side 7 of the
Läther album, he had a 7 minute track, a 5 minute track and the 8 minute version of "The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution," and it fit perfectly. Had Frank lived to see the CD release of
Läther, he probably would have included the full version of that song on the CD.