Essential Zappa: what's missing from my collectio

Belief that there is one best FZ release requires defective playback equipment or more likely egregious user/listener error. A lot of his ideas mutate and resurface throughout the catalog. Uncle Meat, Lumpy Gravy and Weasels Ripped My Flesh lay down a fair chunk of early compositional foundation. Hot Rats, Waka Jawaka (Hot Rats II) and Grand Wazoo are also superb. The good poop doesn't stop here though. Overnight Sensation, Apostrophe, Roxy and Elswhere, One Size Fits All, Zoot Allures and the Joe's Garage stuff all have some amazing parts on em'. Trying to sum up Zappa's output is not a small task, but compositions like Twenty Small Cigars, Peaches en Regalia, The Black Page, Echidna's Arf, King Kong, Zoot Allures, Sofa, Easter in Watermelon Hay, The Little House I Used To Live In and Inca Roads will probably stick around for quite awhile.

'Weasels Rip My Flesh' & 'Live At The Fillmore', both Mothers albums, were released around the 'Hot Rats' & 'Chungas Revenge' period, and while not being totally instrumental (although there are some amazing instrumental cuts on both!), they totally fit in the sound amd mindset of FZ at that point in time. He was on fire at this point of his career! These records are must-haves for any FZ fan.

Joe's Garage

You can't do that on stage anymore vol 2 +6; Uncle Meat ;200 Motels,for the awesome classical music performed by the Royal Philharmonic orchestra ;and FZ plays FZ. Uncle Meat is about my top fav.I couldn't live without any of the above.I saw him live every year starting in 1970 at the fillmore east when his grayhair mother walked down the isle to introduce him and band.Awesome.

Somewhat redundant to previous posts...
Uncle Meat
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Shut Up and Play Your Guitar

Absolutely, get "Chunga's Revenge".
"Orange County Lumber Truck" on Weasels is fantastic.

I love the stuff on Hot Rats.

(Good recordings on Rycodisc)