The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (1967)
A one-off studio project, Cosmic Sounds paired moog-filled psychedelic weirdness with spoken-word poems, each song/narration dedicated to a sign of the zodiac.
The narration/poetry is quite terrible, of course, nonsensical and read in a deep, portentous voice (making it a more entertaining cousin of the posthumous Jim Morrison spoken word releases), but the music is at worst a silly yet joyous stab at low-grade psychedelia, the sort of thing grown-ups of the era might have come up with if they'd toked up and tried to figure out what exactly bands like the Jefferson Airplane and the Doors and Pink Floyd were up to. Some of the tracks work better than others, but if you set aside the spoken-word stuff, the musical passages are ideal for recreating a swinging 1967 bachelor pad dense with the small of bad weed and patchouli, or maybe the soundtrack for a badly-dated sci-fi tv series.
Though probably not something they included on their resume alongside Pet Sounds, the musicians include members of the legendary Wrecking Crew, Carole Kaye on bass and Hal Blaine on drums. So there's that. But this isn't something you listen to for the musical virtuosity; it's something you spin every couple years wholly for its faux-trippy weirdness and delightful kitsch value.
Here's a video someone threw together for "Aries":
...and "Leo":
Hello, Marc!
ReplyDeleteContext is tricky when you look at an album from a distance of 50+ years. In your review, you say:
"...the sort of thing grown-ups of the era might have come up with if they'd toked up and tried to figure out what exactly bands like the Jefferson Airplane and the Doors and Pink Floyd were up to."
Which suggests that this was a square response to what the REAL psychedelic bands were doing at the time.
The Doors' first album had come out in January. Surrealistic Pillow had just come out in February. The very first Pink Floyd single, "Arnold Layne", had just come out in March (aired on American Bandstand of all places—you think those kids knew what it was about?)
Zodiac was recorded in April, so I guess you could say it's a response to those.. except it's not at all in those genres at all. When it came out, it was kind of a revolution. Zodiac came out May 1967, the same month as Sgt. Pepper, Are You Experienced, and Headquarters, and I think it stands with those as helping to mark a new era.
I loved the album when it came out (which, for me, was just three years ago—our crowd lives 55 years time shifted. It's a whole thing. https://galacticjourney.org) I still love it. I think the narration works perfectly, better than Morrison's weird spoken word.
But I also love your blog. I'm not criticizing, just speaking from a more "in the moment" perspective.
I
I can't argue with anything you said. Thanks for weighing in!
Delete