Zappa?


In an ongoing exploration of various musical styles, I've run across Frank Zappa's Grand Wazoo. It's been a long time since I listened to Zappa, and I found the Grand Wazoo to be entertaining. What recommendations do you have for Zappa's works? What should be avoided?

As an aside, what album contains the line "help, I'm a rock..."?

John
johnrob
I'll start with Joe's Garage and One Size Fits All (seemingly the most enthuastic choices), and Yellow Shark (the classical influence seems interesting.
Peter mentions "Chungas Revenge", an album that seems to mark a transition of sorts (there were many), one of my favorites. The dirty wawa blues licks on "Road Ladies" stopped my buddy in his tracks when I played it for him. He was a Jimmie Page fanatic, but suddenly he took FZ seriously as a player, something he had not considered.
You might think about trying some earlier FZ first just to see where he was coming from. Whatever you do, dont forget his early stuff, even the silliest songs are great. Also anyone notice that "Burnt Weenie Sandwich" shows up on the "Filmore" and in "200 Motels" among other albums in various forms?
Guaranteed, if you buy enough Zappa, you'll be offended and/or disappointed, he was all over the place, from do-wop, fusion, classical, jazz and in between.
My favorite is Hot Rats, terrific fusion-y without much vocals.
2nd choice is where they put two of his albums on one cd - Overnite Sensation and One Size Fits All which is in his rock with humor style.
FZ's output covers a prodigeous amount of sq. footage. Hot Rats 2, (Waka Jawaka) is about as close to Grand Wazoo as yer gonna get. Both measure real high on the spiff o meter. Like other posters have said, nearly every Zappa record has something great on it.