| Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | October 30, 1979 | |||
| Recorded | February–April 1979 | |||
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| Length | LP:88:33 CD: 90:05 | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Producer | Stevie Wonder | |||
| Stevie Wonder chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" | ||||
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Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" is an album byStevie Wonder, originally released on the TamlaMotown label on October 30, 1979. It is the soundtrack to the documentaryThe Secret Life of Plants, directed byWalon Green, which was based onthe book of the same name byPeter Tompkins andChristopher Bird. It contains two singles that reached theBillboard Hot 100 charts: "Send One Your Love" (No. 4) and the minor hit "Outside My Window" (No. 52). The single "Black Orchid" reached No. 63 in the UK.
Wonder created the film score by having Michael Braun, the film's producer, describe each visual image in detail, while the sound engineer, Gary Olazabal, specified the length of a passage. This information was processed to a four-track tape (with the film's sound on one of the tracks), leaving Wonder space to add his own musical accompaniment.[1] Wonder attempted to translate the complex information of the book and film into song lyrics. "Same Old Story," for example, tries to convey the scientific findings ofJagadish Chandra Bose, who developed instruments to measure plants' response to stimuli, and the breakthroughs of American agriculturalistGeorge Washington Carver. While written mostly by Stevie Wonder, some songs were collaborations withSyreeta Wright,Yvonne Wright, andMichael Sembello.
Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" contained newsynthesizer combinations, including the first use of a digital sampling synthesizer, theComputer Music Melodian,[2] used in most tracks of this album.[3]Journey is an earlydigital recording, released three months afterRy Cooder'sBop till You Drop, generally believed to be the first digitally recorded popular music album, with this album being the second. Stevie Wonder was an early adherent of the technology and used it for all his subsequent recordings. The music was recorded ontoU-matic video tapes using a Sony PCM-1600 digitalPCM adaptor, and edited with a digital controller also from Sony.[4]
Tamla/Motown originally released the album as a double LP in a tri-fold sleeve.[5] The front cover wasembossed, and following Wonder's recent trend of printingBraille messages on his albums, the cover illustration was captioned below in Braille for blind readers:
⠄⠁⠃⠧ ⠯ ⠔⠎⠊⠙⠑ ⠮ ⠑⠍⠃⠕⠎⠎⠫ ⠎⠟⠥⠜⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠮ ⠳⠞⠇⠔⠑ ⠷ ⠁ ⠋⠇⠪⠻ ⠾ ⠧⠑⠔⠫ ⠇⠂⠧⠑⠎⠲
⠠⠌⠑⠧⠊⠑ ⠠⠺⠕⠝⠙⠻⠄⠎ ⠄⠚⠳⠗⠝⠑⠽ ⠄⠐⠹ ⠠⠮ ⠠⠎⠑⠉⠗⠑⠞ ⠠⠇⠊⠋⠑ ⠷ ⠠⠰⠏⠇⠁⠝⠞⠎⠲
"Above and inside the embossed square is the outline of a flower with veined leaves. Stevie Wonder's Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants."[6]
Initial pressings of the album were also scented with a floral perfume.[7]
After Stevie Wonder's previous albumsInnervisions (1973),Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974), andSongs in the Key of Life (1976) all won theGrammy Award for Album of the Year, his next project was highly anticipated, and Motown marketed it aggressively. Although theSecret Life of Plants documentary film never received a wide release, Wonder's soundtrack album went all the way up to number four in the Rock and R&BBillboard charts in 1979 and was also certified platinum byProductores de Música de España,[8] while the single "Send One Your Love" also reached number four. However, sales tapered off quickly, and label headBerry Gordy reportedly complained that the one million copies he pressed turned out to be 900,000 too many.[6]
Wonder supported the album in late 1979 with a six-city tour, performing nearly the entire album live with his band Wonderlove and the National Afro-American Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted byJames Frazier Jr.).[9] Reflecting the orchestra's presence and the album's atmospheric tone, the tour venues included concert halls and opera houses.[10] The shows began with thePlants music (partially accompanied by film projections), followed by a second half spanning his career hits.[11]
| Date | City | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| November 28, 1979 | Chicago, Illinois | Auditorium Theatre |
| November 29, 1979 | Detroit, Michigan | Ford Auditorium |
| November 30, 1979 | Detroit, Michigan | Cobo Arena |
| December 2, 1979 | New York, New York | Metropolitan Opera House |
| December 3, 1979 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Academy of Music |
| December 4, 1979 | Washington, D.C. | DAR Constitution Hall |
| December 9, 1979 | New York, New York | Madison Square Garden |
| December 18, 1979 | Pasadena, California | Civic Auditorium |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [12] |
| Baltimore Sun | (favorable)[13] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B−[14] |
| DownBeat | [15] |
| Music Week | [16] |
| New York Times | (favorable)[17] |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10[18] |
| Rolling Stone | (mixed)[19] |
| Rolling Stone | [20] |
| Smash Hits | 6/10[21] |
Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" has sometimes been considered a "vague" and "overambitious" album;[22] it has been called "goofy", "nerdy", "odd", "pointless" and "foolish",[23] and for listeners and critics it was seen as too much of a departure from his string of melodic albums.[23] However, some critics have also described it as "courageous", "achingly sweet", and "bafflingly beautiful".[23]Stephen Holden in a review for theVillage Voice remarked that the album has "the painful awkwardness of a barely literate sidewalk sermon", though Wonder "manages to transform even the worst of this drivel into a spiritual jargon that's virtually a different language; his very in-articulateness clears the way for us to tune in to the ineffable, nonrational flow that's his obsession."[24]
Wonder remarked in 2004 that the album "was an experimental project with me scoring and doing other things I like: challenging myself with all the things that entered my mind from the Venus's Flytrap to Earth's creation to coming back as a flower."[25]
The cover of the album was selected byRolling Stone in 1991 for their list of 100 Classic Album Covers as a memorable example of album art.[26]
Cash Box said "Outside My Window" was a "truly joyous, pastoral love song, utilizing the universal image of the flower to lyrically represent all that is fair and beautiful in nature."[27]Record World said of it that "A deep, dense bassline is mixed alongside Wonder's uplifting vocals on this mid-tempo track."[28]
Solange Knowles named it as an influence on her 2019 albumWhen I Get Home.[29]
KAINA covered the song "Come Back as a Flower" on her 2022 albumIt Was a Home.[30]
All tracks written, produced and arranged by Stevie Wonder.
Side one
Side two
Side three
Side four
| Chart (1979) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[32] | 24 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[33] | 12 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[34] | 33 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[35] | 16 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[36] | 8 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[37] | 13 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[38] | 8 |
| USBillboard 200[39] | 4 |
| USTop R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[40] | 4 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[41] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Netherlands (NVPI)[42] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[8] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[43] | Gold | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
