Rock journalism is people who can't write
interviewing people who can't talk
for people who can't read.
Sardonic, mischievous, and intrepid, Frank never pulled his punches.
While the antics and debauches of his bands and crew were legendary and the subject of many songs (Mudshark, Latex Solar Beef) and at least one album cover (Over-nite Sensation), the man himself didn't use anything stronger than coffee and cigarettes, and while on the job demanded complete professionalism as well as wicked chops from his musicians, even the ones who had spent the previous evening filming closeups of a blow-up doll with a mouth full of tadpoles. I'm not enough of a composer to comment on his later orchestral works, but I'll say that despite a penchant for melodically and rhythmically turning on a dime within songs, Zappa et al produced some of the grooviest rock'n'roll ever committed to vinyl. Listen to Andy or Pajama People on One Size Fits All, for example.
He played a mean Gibson SG. Listen to Ship Ahoy from Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar. And if you like that ring modulator + echo box + harmonics tone, check out son Dweezil's cover of Baby One More Time for a brief, hilarious homage.
Zappa was also, as noted, in the vanguard of the battle against censorship and the PMRC in particular. Vaclav Havel wanted to make him a special ambassador for music?culture? in?to? the Czech Republic, but the State Department under James A. Baker III intervened, perhaps because Baker's wife was on the PMRC.
Strong albums: Hot Rats, One Size Fits All, Apostrophe. Though it's embarrassing to try to select the 'best' of such a rich discography, the first is jazzy and largely instrumental; the next is driving rock'n'roll; and the last is quite famous, mostly for including Don't Eat the Yellow Snow. Also, rich as the discography is, there's a lot more unreleased in the tape vault of Zappa's studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.