Zappa Recommendations ?

Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation
Shut up And Play Yer Guitar
Live In New York
Sheik Yerbouti
Guitar
Chungas Revenge
Zoot Allures

@roxy54 and bigtwin: 

I'm liking "Waka Jawaka" and "The Grand Wazoo"--  perhaps because they're quite jazzy.

I can actually envision buying these.

I'll check out the numerous other recommendations made throughout the thread. . . 

@edgewear:

"Zappa considered his social commentaries to be ’antropological field studies’, describing situations and characters pretty much as they appeared to him in real life"

Can't say I've personally encountered many such characters/situations in real life. Can't say I regret that, either!  

@edgewear:

"I assume FZ would have been highly amused by the very idea that a person might consider himself too UNsophisticated to appreciate his stuff".

What I had in mind when I suggested I might be too unsophisticated was my difficulty enjoying the juxtaposition of a high level of musicianship with, to borrow your phrase, "deliberate crudeness".