Them or Us

Album content

Its opening and closing tracks are covers: "The Closer You Are", which was written by Earl Lewis and Morgan Robinson and originally released by The Channels; and "Whippin' Post", originally recorded by The Allman Brothers Band.

"Ya Hozna" is actually a forward basic track with vocal taken from "Sofa No. 2" (from "One Size Fits All", 1975), "Lonely Little Girl" (from We're Only in It for the Money, 1968) and unreleased outtakes of "Valley Girl" (vocals by Moon Zappa) played backwards. "Planet of My Dreams" (featuring Bob Harris on vocals) is a 1981 studio recording taken from the score of Zappa's unrealized 1972 stage musical "Hunchentoot" (several titles from this show also appear on the first-CD edition of Zappa's Sleep Dirt reissue from 1993).

As with other Zappa rock albums of the era, many tracks are sourced from live recordings (mostly with added studio overdubs) although there is no mention of it in the liner notes.

Release

Following distribution problems with Zappa's album Thing-Fish, which former Barking Pumpkin distributor MCA Records refused to distribute, Zappa made a deal with EMI Records, which would allow Them Or Us and Thing-Fish to be distributed by Capitol Records in the United States. Zappa wrote a "warning" which appeared on the inner sleeves of these albums, as well as Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, which stated that the albums contained content "which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress", and a "guarantee" which stated that the lyrics would not "cause eternal torment in the place where the guy with the horns and pointed stick conducts his business."

Track listing

All tracks written by Frank Zappa, except where noted.

Musicians

Production staff