I've seen a lot of people here give props to Frank Zappa. Where's the best place for a novice to start with his catalogue?

Oh man, he's done so many albums.

I'd recommend Joe's Garage for definate.
Also, Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

I'm gonna go have a look, I'll get back to you.

Okay, here's some others I'd recommend:

Freak Out!
Absolutely Free
We're Only In It For The Money
Uncle Meat
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Lumpy Gravy
Hot Rats
Chunga's Revenge

So that's mostly his very early stuff... but that's when he was at his best.

I like You Are What You Is, Sheik Yerbouti and Tinseltown Rebellion quite a bit - lots of good guitar stuff and weird/goofy as hell. Freak Out is also very good, with some amazing (and hilarious) sound collage stuff at the end.

Overnite Sensation and One Size Fits All are great albums.

Cloudbuster said:

Welll, my fav's are:

Joe's garage

Apostrophe/overnite sensation (an excellent starting point)

sleep dirt

bongo fury (awesome live album with many unforgettable solo's )

hot rats

you can't do that onstage anymore vol 2

roxy music ( a must for any true zappa fan )

jazz from hell (experimental electronica only one live track with a killer solo )

crusing with ruben and the jets (warning Doo wop parody album, but gorgeous & funny)

chunga's revenge

broadway the hardway (nice live album, not his best but definitely a couple of gems on there)

Zoot allures (black napkins alone make it a worthy purchase )

Apostrophe

For instrumental 'jazz/rock' Zappa - 'Hot Rats'

For the rude/lewd '70s Zappa - 'Overnite Sensation'

For the amazing '60s bizarro visionary - 'Uncle Meat'

For 'Guitar God' Zappa - Guitar' - intense but awesome

Frank Zappa, in my view, is perhaps the best lead guitarist in rock-related music, bar none. Hendrix was a true sonic visionary, but he was young and unschooled, grasping in the dark for new things, while Zappa was a true composer, who showed what can be done with an electric guitar and an elastic rock rhythm section.

People really should get over this idea of Zappa as just a rude satirist who made a couple of decent albums. His catalogue is one of the richest (and largest) in all of popular music, covering everything from doo-wop to modern classical to hard rock to electronic experimentation. Overall, I consider his body of work to be much superior to Prince's so far, much as I love P. P. has yet to reach the depth and consistency of Zappa's best music. And with Zappa, it's the music that really matters. Not having hits, not being sexy, not keeping up with trends, but music. I hope that Prince's music will one day reach the levels of sophistication and originality that Frank Zappa once did. Both are major musical inspirations to me.