When I first heard ‘Goblin Girl’, I nearly choked myself laughing at some of the lyrics. 
Yet so much admired the guitar work on ‘Why can’t Johnny read’ and ‘The secret chord progression of Carlos Santana’, 
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Try “Watermelon in Easter Hay”, “ Black Napkins” or the short guitar solo on “Uncle Remus”, for just a few examples.
Tasty as it gets.
YMMV, etc.
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It is impossible to try and pick a couple of tracks that encapsulate FZ.
I have the same dilemma with Todd Rundgren 
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Try this on for size:
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I would recommend these too
Hot Rats
One size fits all
Apostrophe
An astonishing guitarist and band leader, lucky enough to see him a couple of times
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Zappa’s output is seemingly limitless, and posthumously hasn’t stopped. There’s no easy answer to “where do I start?” And you’ll get different answers depending who you ask.
His musicality and demands placed upon his band are immeasurable. As has already been mentioned, the output is extensive across multiple genres.
“The black page #1” is one example of a piece of music that is notoriously hard to play, and even harder to master. The musicians that played with Zappa are unquestionably great; just check out the alumni, Steve Vai, Vinnie Colaiuta, Chester Thompson …. There’s a long list of the best.
Back to the black page:
And Terry Bozzio, Vai and friends (inc Dweezil Zappa):
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I saw Vai at the Royal Albert Hall in Zappa plays Zappa doing Zomby Woof quite incredible.
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I have been meaning to post this picture on the Naim owners artwork thread for ages, but thought that it may be of more interest here.
I have never been a huge Zappa fan but couldn’t resist when I saw this at an exhibition in Hebden Bridge almost twenty year ago. It is from a collaboration by Andrew Livingstone & George Morris both huge , Zappa fans. The title is : Frank reveals the secrets of the universe within a piece of cheese, to his collection of adoring fans.
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Oh last but least. His recordings and production of his output is usually A1. The exception being where he screwed the record company over. He even took his own bootleggers on, and won. If you do not like the music, fair enough. However, there are a lot of artist’s out there, who should hang their head in shame to the quality of their output.
As Frank sang it “Tinsel Town Rebellion”
Todd Rundgren? Now you’re talking - genius! IMHO of course.
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No, Frank Zappa is genius. Todd is God.
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Don’t talk to Andy Partridge about Todd or is it don’t talk to Todd about Andy Partridge.
Which ever version you listen too, it is still, a great album
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Yes I agree and feel that Todd was much maligned.
I agree. Also when you produced the 6th biggest selling album of all time (Wikipedia) and did all the guitar work on it. Well you must be doing something right.
For the people that do not know. The album is ‘Bat out of Hell’.
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I honestly tried to listen to this album several times over the years. Not once did I get to the end of it. It’s probably some kind of inner joke.
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Hey, that’s okay. I had the same problem with Musical Youth
If he’s such a genius, why does that album (“Bat Out Of Hell”) sound like it was produced in hell ?
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