Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart - Bongo Fury (1975)

I was never really into Zappa until I got this LP, through which I also discovered the strange magic of the astonishingly original Captain Beefheart. For some reason, I couldn't get enough of one particular track — the cunningly cryptic (or perhaps just tantalisingly absurd) 'Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy', a delightfully rocking piece of inspired hokum that climaxes with a blistering fuzz-guitar solo by Zappa.

Much of the music on the album was recorded live, but the musicians, including the indefatigable Terry Bozzio on drums, play without fluffing a note or missing a beat — as anyone would under the no-nonsense direction of Zappa the perfectionist. Even his flubbed line on 'Muffin Man' sounds scripted, though that doesn't mean there's anything stiff or stilted about the proceedings on the whole.