Of his 72 albums, which is your favorite?

Right now im liken Hot Rats

Hot Rats is his Jazz-Fusion masterpiece, but as far as his work with the Mothers', you just cannot go wrong with these albums, easily his top 5:

Absolutely Free
We're Only In It For The Money
Uncle Meat
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Glad to see you're getting into Zappa -- he's one of my all-time favs.

I guess APOSTROPHE is my favorite. I like parts of many others, including a lot of the first volume of JOE'S GARAGE.


Zappa, much like Rundgren, Bowie and many others, seemed to think that every idea that popped into his head (and then reduced to tape) was a good one. An editor could have helped. I have (or have heard) about half of those 72 you mentioned, and there is something on each one that I liked, and each had what seemed to me to be some obvious flaws.

Apostraphe and his similar '70s albums (( and what came after )) are where he goes downhill for me...it seemed a conscious approach to appeal to a wider pop audience at the sacrifice of his original vision and satiric wit. It's this work that has solidified his reputation as "that guy who wrote some funny lyrics" among most rock fans, rather than one of the true innovators of the 1960s...

I've got three of the ones you've listed, and heard parts of UNCLE MEAT. As I said above, there are parts of each that I liked, some on FREE, more so on MONEY, less on WEASELS. The more he got experimental, the more likely he was to lose my interest. I'm not a music theorist, and I don't really care if he did a bold move of putting a D# after a Gdim7 (and I'm not EVEN saying he did that, just pulling notes and chords for example), if it doesn't sound good together, it's a failed experiment. STUDIO TAN and ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES are a couple that reek of "I'm a serious artist, so pay attention to me. NO, I MEAN IT, I'm SERIOUS!!!" HOT RATS was OK in places, but the trick got old on WAKA JAWAKA (sp?). As I said above, I'm hit and miss with a lot of his stuff.

I agree that Zappa's music changed in the mid-70's; stuff like SHEIK YERBOUTI (I don't know the exact spelling) and the second and third acts of JOE'S GARAGE were just embarassingly lame lyrically. APOSTROPHE was perhaps the last gasp, with some great music and some lyrics that weren't a total loss.

I don't think I can narrow it down to one. Frank Zappa has many great albums. What an amazing talent he was.

"Absolutely Free" cause it combines his 'rock combo' beginnings with the social commentary and Classical elements which would later rear their magnificent and ugly heads.

"One Size Fits All" cause it's TIGHTER than Britney's pants! I LOVE that era of the band and the arrangements are very snappy.

"Chunga's Revenge" cause it has 'Transylvanian Boogie' on it.

"Shut up and play your guitar" box because FZ could really play the guitar.

"Lather" or "Sleep Dirt" cause they have my favorite Instrumentals on 'em.

Impossible. There are no limits to his musical greatness. i love the concept of writing notes on a page, then playing it with no sense of conceptual direction. Every way one can play music including hand signals to denote genre style has been utilized by Frank. He does it; then he doesnt do it. He satirized every aspect of the human condition and relished every moment, as did his core group of fans, who followed his every move from Freak Out to The Yellow Shark. Iconoclastic to say the least. NM

I like "Roxy and Elsewhere". They were at the height of their powers. What a band!

agreed.
zappa.com has been promising a high quality DVD of those shows for like 2 years!!
I used to hear 'Penguins in Bondage' on FM radio a lot back in the day.

I think this might be the most engaging version of the band in many ways.
Zappa had a knack for incorporating the skills of the players in what he gave them to do.
A fine batch of players!