Journey through the Secret Life of Plants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008) |
| Journey through the Secret Life of Plants | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Stevie Wonder | |||||
| Released | October 30, 1979 | ||||
| Recorded | February - April 1979 | ||||
| Genre | R&B | ||||
| Length | 89:45 | ||||
| Label | Motown | ||||
| Producer | Stevie Wonder | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Stevie Wonder chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Stevie Wonder's Journey through the Secret Life of Plants is an album by Stevie Wonder, originally released on the Tamla Motown label on October 30, 1979 (see 1979 in music). It is the soundtrack to the documentary The Secret Life of Plants, directed by Walon Green and based on the book of the same name by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird.
Coming after Stevie Wonder's 1976 Grammy Award-winning Songs in the Key of Life, Journey through the Secret Life of Plants was panned by most critics and was confusing to many fans, who didn't know what to make of the conceptual, mostly instrumental double album.[citation needed] Even so, such was Wonder's commercial appeal at the time that Journey went all way up to number four in the Rock and R&B Billboard charts in 1979. It is now considered by many to be a classic in its own right.
Although written mostly by Stevie Wonder, a couple of songs were collaborations with former wife Syreeta Wright and with Michael Sembello.
Journey through the Secret Life of Plants contained unusual synthesizer combinations including the first use of a digital sampling synthesizer, the Computer Music Melodian, used in virtually every track of the album. Journey is also notable for being an early digital recording, released three months after Ry Cooder's Bop Till You Drop, generally believed to be the first digitally recorded popular music album. Stevie Wonder was an early adherent of the technology and used it for all his subsequent recordings.
Stevie's moderate-hit song "Overjoyed" was left off this album and rewritten and re-recorded for his 1985 album In Square Circle.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs written, produced and arranged by Stevie Wonder, except where noted
[edit] Side one
- "Earth's Creation" – 4:06
- Instrumental.
- "The First Garden" – 4:48
- Harmonica-based instrumental.
- "Voyage to India" – 6:29
- Instrumental, featuring two movements. One orchestral, the other citara-based.
- "Same Old Story" – 3:44
- "Venus' Flytrap and the Bug" – 2:25
- A jazz-comedy piece, with Stevie Wonder playing the role of bug.
[edit] Side two
- "Ai No, Sono" – 2:06
- Japanese chant-
- "Seasons" – 2:53
- Instrumental piece
- "Power Flower" – 5:29
- Lyrics by Michael Sembello.
- "Send One Your Love (music)" – 3:05
- Instrumental rendition of the main single.
- "Race Babbling" – 8:51
[edit] Side three
- "Send One Your Love" – 4:01
- "Outside My Window" – 5:29
- "Black Orchid" – 3:47
- Lyrics by Yvonne Wright.
- "Ecclesiastes" – 3:42
- A religious, choral piece.
- "Kesse Ye Lolo De Ye" – 3:03
[edit] Side four
- "Come Back as a Flower" – 4:59
- Lead vocals and lyrics by Syreeta Wright.
- "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley" – 5:53
- "The Secret Life of Plants" – 4:16
- "Tree" – 5:47
- "Finale" – 7:01
- Instrumental, a reprise of several songs from the album.
