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This is truly Frank Zappa's magnum opus. It encompasses everything there is to know about the man. You can't go wrong, no matter what side of Zappa you prefer. There's the late 60's psychedelia and avant-guard, great classic rock, jazz-rock/fusion, classical, guitar solos galore, and so much more. Even if you own all the 70's albums that came out of this, as I do, this is still essential because this is the way it was meant to be presented, in this order and format. There are also songs and different renditions of songs that arent on any other recording.

As for the songs themselves, The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution here is the best version, much more focused than the Sleep Dirt version, while great because of the amazing extended solo section, can drag on a bit. Here it gets right to the point. Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra and RDNZL are of course the show stoppers, with Greggary Peccary strangely but effectively ending this epic album. Everything else is pretty much the same versions, but with strange noises and sounds between most tracks. There's also a few bonus tracks which is sweet.

If this album had come out it would be up there with the other classic Zappa albums like The Grand Wazoo, Hot Rats, Apostrophe, Roxy & Elsewhere, One Size Fits All, etc... This is basically Zappa at his most creative, extreme, epic, and all around greatest. A must own for Zappa heads, Jazz-rock/fusion fans, rock fans, avant-fans, classical fans, comedy rock fans, you get the point...

Essential!