Astrology Collectibles & Reviews

Reviews

The Chinese Zodiac placemats arrived quickly and were packaged so that they wouldn't get bent during shipment. The price for the quantity was fantastic and they made great sharing gifts for my kids' classes while they were learning about Chinese New Year.

I purchased 200 Chinese Zodiac Paper Placements for a Luncheon in January 2009. Our theme is "Preparing for the Chinese New Year - 2009" and I'll be serving foods symbolic to a Chinese New Year's Eve menu as well as preparing a booklet describing the traditions associated with this Holiday. Since most of the guests are older than the first year (1936) shown for each Animal Sign. I'll have to insert a section on adding increments of "12" in order to find their sign. Since I'm operating with a small budget I'm very pleased with the quality of the merchandise for the price I paid!

Reviews

Giorgio Moroder, famed producer of all Donna Summer's disco albums, did 3 albums with Roberta Kelly, and finally, we get one of them on CD. Actually, the majority of this album was on 2 different Unidisc CD singles in the 90s, and comparing those with this new reissue, the sound is quite different. This CD sticks closer to the true sound of the original recording, where as, if you compare, you can now tell that the Unidisc version was somewhat 'remixed' to give it a fuller, bassier sound. So, depending on your tastes, the 'enhanced' dance thumps of the Unidisc singles may be what you prefer. My only real complaint about this release is that, considering all three of Kelly's Moroder produced albums seriously need to be on CD, WHY didn't they make this a 2-on-1 and include one of her other albums? This CD runs only 30 minutes long in its entirety! That leaves 50 minutes of unused space!!! Let's just hope this sells well enough so Gold Legion will consider issuing the "Troublemaker" and "Gettin' the Spirit" CDs.

If you were around 33 years ago and had any boogie sense, you were dancing to these funky star-kissed songs. Yes Virginia, Giorgio Moroder was God. Great remastering by Gold Legion. Disco Rules!

I just love this CD. As a teenager I use to dance to these great songs in the Disco's of New York. Zodiac's brings back many cherished memories. Love the entire 12" version of Zodiac/Love Sign/Funky Stardust.

Reviews

The original CRUISIN' series of albums (1955 through 1967) first appeared in the early 1970's on Vinyl albums, cassettes and 8-tracks. They were recreations of a radio show done by a popular DJ for that year. Usually a CD re-issue will be an exact duplicate of the album. However in the case of the CRUISIN' series of CD's that is not the case. When the rights to the CRUISIN' series were sold in the 1980's all of the clearances to the songs used on the albums lapsed. Before the new owner could re-issue the series all the clearances for the songs had to be re-negotiated. Most of the songs were cleared, but some were not and they were not included in the re-issue. The problem isn't just that songs are missing but the editing is ham-fisted. for example, the DJ will talk over the intro to a song and start a story, as does Dick Biondi on CRUISIN' 1960 with the song "You Talk too Much" which is not on the CD, and finish the story on the outtro of that same song. This causes other comments made by the DJ to be taken out of context and you will be left shaking your head and asking, "Why did he say that?" If your intention is to replace your worn out albums or tapes you will be disappointed. In fact, Ron Jacobs, who produced the original albums recommends that you do not. Ron's suggestion that you purchase the original albums through an auction website and burn them to CD is not feasible for most folks. If you have never heard the original albums then the CD re-issues will give you a good idea of what Rock and Roll radio was like and if you listened to radio during the '50's or '60's and even the early '70's should bring back memories.

This cd is the greatest. A trip through time, back to the good old days. I would recommend it to anyone. Hank

Don't buy this cd if you're just after the songs. It's a recording of this Dick Biondi character's work as a DJ, complete with him speaking over the begining and ending of the songs - in horrible AM radio sound!

I have every CD in the "Cruisin'" series now (except the four I have on tape), and I have to say, this is the absolute BEST of any of them!! None of the other DJ's in the series, or for that matter, none of the DJ's I've heard on regular radio, could ever measure up to Dick Biondi! What you hear on this CD is REAL talent, enthusiasm, energy, personality...need I go on? No wonder so many people listened to Biondi, and no wonder he had continued success in Chicago, and in L.A. for a short time, and then back in Chicago! Where else could you find an attractive, perky "Itralian"?? This CD, for starters (you Chicagoans are lucky, by the way, because Biondi is still on the air there, as far as I know). I do wish they would have kept the same songs on the CD and tape versions that were on the original vinyl versions that were released in the early '70's, but I hardly consider that enough of a downfall to bring my rating of this CD down from a 5. Listen to this CD; you'll love it!

Dick Biondi was one of the greatest DJ'S in the 50's and 60's. While in Buffalo almost half of the audience was his. It was listen to Biondi, or else. While in Chicago his ratings were even greater. Unfortunitely his sound does not hold up to todays standard. I have the entire Cruisin' Series and Dick Biondi is the weak link.

Reviews

The most psychedelic album ever! It really is best if "played in the dark." I love this man's voice! We had this playing among a mix of 60's songs in our bedroom, and everytime Cyrus would come on to do a zodiac reading, I would say "Yay! It's my zodiac man." I especially like the reading for Sagittarius.

That's how it happened for me. As an undergrad of the late Sixties, I was on the fringe of the hippie-dippy thing without really belonging. My roommate had it and I had come to trust Elektra via the Doors. When he moved out of the dorm into an apartment, I went out and bought me a copy. Despite the fact that the late Jim Morrison later told an audience that, despite knowing his sign and a little of the so-called character traits that went with it, he thought the zodiac thing was a lot of bull. I hadn't heard him make that comment at the time, but that's how I've always felt. If I'd just seen this album in the racks, I'd have brushed it off. But my roomie just played the thing, and despite the trite prose and poetry read by Cyrus Faryar (a great voice-over talent), the music just got to me. It's prog rock before there was even a genre for that sound. And on some tracks it was new age before new age was new age. The moog work is spacy but the melodic aspect still dominates. That was not all that easy to do with that period's monophonic synthesizers. It's too bad this album isn't available in MP3 or at least some other way to hear samplings of the tracks. That way you'd be able to ignore the cover art that implies that this is nothing but a soundtrack for believers in the Twelve Signs. You can listen to this as an album of MUSIC, the same way I've been doing for over 40 years. This is that rare recording where the title doesn't mean diddly in terms of music.

Two instruments debuted in 1960's rock: the mellotron--two keyboards connected to tape banks loaded with various sounds that replay and rewind, pioneered by the Moody Blues (see my review of their "To Our Children's Children's Children" on this site), whose Justin Hayward would later say the not so commercial, but serious, "Cosmic Sounds" album by Los Angeles session group, The Zodiac, in 1967, inspired their "Days Of Future Passed" from the same year, and the Moog synthesizer--a conglomeration of modules or electronic circuitry and components communicating with other components, also operated by a keyboard, invented in 1964 by a physicist, the late Dr. Robert A. Moog. Previous to "Cosmic Sounds," the late Paul Beaver, jazz sessionist and cynosure of this opus, played with percussionist Emil Richards. As well, Beaver and former member of the Weavers and bioacoustician, Dr. Bernie Krause, also performed "electronica" as Beaver and Krause. The Byrds, who used the Moog on five albums, were the first commercial/serious rock group with a band member playing it--12 string virtuoso Roger McGuinn, but with Beaver and producer Gary Usher assisting--on an album, "The Notorious Byrd Brothers," recorded in 1967. Alex Hassilev--formerly of The Limeliters, accompanied by, then "Jim," McGuinn--was the producer of "Cosmic Sounds." This moniker--and its subtitle, "celestial counterpoint with words and music," anticipates the concept of sounds speaking from an ordered universe. The twelve signs of the zodiac--Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces--are the track titles, each adorned with an individual theme, create a sojourn escorted through the voice of folkie Cyrus Faryar, whose cogent phrasing, penned by Jacques Wilson, drips with the authority of a sage and sorcerer. His pensive commentary is accomplished by metaphorizing and similizing with numbers, colours and jewels/stones throughout the disc. I examined my birth sign, "Aries," thematically subtitled "The Fire-Fighter" and it typified the cosmic found on all of this work: "Nine times the colour red explodes like heated blood," and later, "Incendiary diamonds scorch the earth/Aries is first to face the flames/The cause is lost in smoke," and then the end emanates with the punchline, "Quick, find another fire!" The allegory teaches us of the excesses of passion that must, at all costs, be rekindled--the character of such a birth sign: vivacity and fresh beginnings. As admonished on the back cover, "MUST BE PLAYED IN THE DARK," I was taxied to the Twilight Zone, my eyes seemingly closed all the while they were open. The music is an enchantingly eerie tapestry of psychedelic sounds, taking one to India, medieval Europe and anywhere else and time awingly exotic, without a moment's notice. This is realized with the exquisite interplay of Moog synthesizer by Beaver, percussion by Richards, drums by Hal Blaine--sessionist on the earliest and aforementioned Byrds records, flute by Bud Shank--who played on the Byrd's "She's The Kind Of Girl," from 1970, harpsichord, sitar, organ and guitar. Acquire "Cosmic Sounds" by The Zodiac, and listen until the sign says music will play when the moon is in A major.

I believe the name of this group is called The Zodiac, and the album is called Cosmic Sounds. Anyways, this album was released in 1967 on Elektra. The Doors apparently inspired Elektra to expand their musical horizons so comes this early electronic project. Music is written by Mort Garson (who released many Moog albums of his own, including 1971's wonderful Black Mass/Lucifer), with a bunch of L.A. session musicians including drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, flautist Bud Shank, and percussionist Emil Richards, many had played on just about every hit single from just about every '60s L.A. group you can think of from The Beach Boys (like "Good Vibrations") to the Byrds ("Mr. Tambourine Man"). Also you get Paul Beaver, an electronic pioneer who does Moog duty here (he also lent his hand to The Monkees album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. which came out after this album, as well as many others, plus albums he did with Bernie Krause), and Cyrus Faryar for narration whose voice reminds me of Jim Morrison when he narrated (likely intentional, given how much huge success Elektra had with The Doors). Each of the 12 songs are, of course, dedicated to the signs of the zodiac, and is some wonderful psychedelic with Moog, plus guitar, bass, electric harpsichord, organ, sitar, tabla. I really love the flute, especially the use of echoey flute. And despite many of the musicians involved in much more mainstream acts, this is very far from the mainstream, adventurous fans of psychedelic and electronic music would certainly, I even go as far as saying open-minded prog rock fans might find much to enjoy here as the music is all very creatively done, and the added bonus of a modular Moog certainly helps big time. Plus I dig the ethnic influences on some of the cuts, the flute has an often exotic feel, reminding me a bit of Paul Horn's flute recordings in sacred monuments (like Inside aka Inside the Taj Mahal), not to mention the sitar. When I first heard "Aires" it sounded very familiar to me. It was because two years later a little known Scottish psychedelic hard rock band by the name Writing on the Wall did a cover of this song off their album The Power of the Picts (1969), an album I am quite familiar with. Their version had heavy, almost Sabbath-like guitar riffs, while the original recording is more mellow. Also "Taurus" sounded familiar to me. Oh yeah, British group East of Eden borrowed the theme to that song for their own "In the Stable of the Sphinx" off their album Mercator Projected (1969). How did the British connect to this album? Elektra Records did have a license to operate in the UK, and this one did receive a UK release. This album was said to inspired the Moody Blues when they recorded Days of Future Passed in October 1967 (which was released the next month in the UK). But it's hard telling, for one thing, many sources stated Cosmic Sounds was released in November 1967, making the inspiration for Days of Future Passed out of the question. But other sources started May 1967, most importantly, Elektra Records themselves, where the label clearly stated "This recording was published May 1967". Also the fact the catalog number was two albums after the Doors' debut, but before Strange Days or even Love's Forever Changes. I've heard this album referred to as a period piece. Yes, the psychedelic rock element certainly is of 1967, and of course the subject matter. But the use of synthesizer is really ahead of its time. Paul Beaver did what the Beatles would do two years later with Abbey Road and integrate the Moog into the music, rather than try to show off its abilities (for one thing, this was brand new technology, so stick with easy basics in case the machine should malfunction, or do something that would take too long to fix). No cheesy renditions of classical or popular favorites here. It was quite the gamble to record an album with technology no one was familiar with in '67 (most others using the Moog at the time were more comfortable playing classical or popular favorites, look at the amount of Switched-On Bach knockoffs flooding the market up to around 1972), but these guys pulled it off and successfully! Also it's interesting to know the musicians involved, for the most part, were older than your typical rock and roll musicians of the 1960s (but more of normal age for 1950s musicians). Yes, it's nice to see 30 something musicians in the late '60s sound like they had a full understanding of the contemporary psychedelic scene, and not sound clueless by recording lite-psychedelic pop (you know the type, easy going pop songs, with lyrics about flowers and beads, balloons, and lollipops to make the lyrics seem "trippy", but musically to play it safe) to try to sell to teenagers. Instead this is not-play-it-safe psychedelia of the first order, as far as I'm concerned. Also I'm happy to see they did this at all, given they had a ton of mainstream credibility (the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Mama and the Papas, The Monkees, Simon & Garfunkel, etc.) and Cosmic Sounds was hardly to appeal to a mainstream audience. I am totally amazed, this is really that wonderful lost gem of psychedelia worthy of your attention.

Cosmic sounds is a portal of music that takes you back into the sixties with a beatnik style that is great fun at parties with friends of educated distinction or just your old pals from school!