In his long career, Frank Zappa probably put out too many albums, having mined most of his abundant talent by the late 1970s, but continuing to try to "freak out" America with pointlessly vulgar songs and political posturing, nearly until his passing. His heroes were heroes before their time, like the composer Edgard Varese, but Zappa, unexpectedly became rich and powerful enough during his own lifetime to do whatever he wanted, and found out he didn't really have that much to say, at least lyrically.  Into the 90s, he worked with brilliant musicians, but in my opinion, they were at their best performing his older music.