[4] As the original title implies, Zappa saw this as a sort of follow up to his earlier jazz-influenced rock albums such as Hot Rats (1969) and Waka/Jawaka (1972).

At the same time Zappa gave interviews which described his legal problems with Warner and former manager Herb Cohen.

In 1982,[7] Zappa asked singer Thana Harris to add her vocals to three songs from this album: "Flambay", "Spider of Destiny", and "Time is Money".

But Warner changed its position following legal action from Cohen and Zappa's contract was assigned back to DiscReet.

The change of album title from Hot Rats III to Sleep Dirt was also done by Warner in violation of Zappa's contract.

[4] During a long legal battle the four individual albums were eventually released during 1978 and 1979 as: Zappa In New York (a two LP set), Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites.

As Zappa had delivered only the tapes for Sleep Dirt to Warner Bros. the album was released in January 1979 with no musician credits.

A 2012 CD re-issue of Läther deletes four bonus tracks including the overdubbed version of "Regyptian Strut".

The 2012 remastered CD by Universal Music reverts to the original instrumental 1979 vinyl version of the album.