ZODIAC RECORDS - WHO ACTUALLY COLLECTS THOSE?
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
The "soul zodiac" thread kinda got me on this jag. I'm not talking about that Chicago label that Ruby Andrews recorded for (HELLO, LUCK), but records that you always see that are devoted to the twelve astrological signs. They're ALWAYS from the late sixties or early seventies (never before or after), some are straight music, some are straight spoken word, I've seen more than one that combines both. Sometimes you see all twelve signs on one album, other times there's different LP's devoted to each sign. And they're always in the used bins, so somebody was buying those fuckers way back when.I never got into that subgenre myself - I just have that one Zodiac Cosmic Sounds elpee on Elektra (a psychedelic zodiac album with narration by Cyrus Faryar), and I still wanna get the Cannonball Adderley, but it still amazes me how big astrology was during the Nixon years. There's the series of elpees with some fashion model on the covers, advertising "music of the zodiac" (nice way to sell elevator music), then there's the ones with the gold-and-black covers where Sydney Omarr is reading horoscopes (which may have come in handy the year the records came out, but must have been next to useless since then). I probably see those two series the MOST.Anybody here like to cut them records up for samples? Do you buy all the astrological series you can for shits and giggles? Or did they find a breakbeat on one of the "musical zodiac" records? As far-ranging as the Soul Strut board is, I wouldn't be surprised if one of y'all had a few of those lying around (even if it's just for dartboard practice)...
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Also, I love LP's that have the astrological information about the group members - there are so many of these! My most recent one found was the Flamingos LP Today on the Ronze label - a double score, because the gatefold had zodiac credentials for the group:
Zeke Carey (Aquarius)[/b] - The dreamer, seldom hesitates to challenge the conventional, possesses the unique talent to organize and direct
AND it includes the track Virgo, Virgin Lady - another tune for the zodiac soul collection !
How 'bout the gatefold of Curtis Mayfield's Roots, which didn't reveal the artist's sign but had all these zodiac designs? Funny considering that only a year earlier he sang about having "no interest or concern in astrology" ("Give It Up" from Curtis).
The songs are every bit as awful as you'd expect, which is kind of why I had to have this record.