Stevie Wonder - Stevie Wonder´s Journey Through The "Secret Life Of Plants" (1979) (2LP) - €20,00

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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. It is the soundtrack to the documentary The Secret Life of Plants, directed by Walon Green, which was based on the book of the same name by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It contains two singles that reached the Billboard 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.

Stevie Wonder broke a three-year silence, one that followed a series of six classic albums released within six years, with this double album, the score/soundtrack to a little-seen environmental documentary directed by Wild Bunch co-screenwriter Walon Green. From the release of Songs in the Key of Life through the release of Plants, Wonder had been active, actually, but only as a collaborator, working with Ramsey Lewis, the Pointer Sisters, Minnie Riperton, Syreeta, Ronnie Foster, and Michael Jackson.

Even so, three years was a considerable lag between albums. Anticipation was so high that this release peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and R&B album charts. It quickly slipped to footnote status; when Wonder’s 1972-1980 albums were reissued in 2000, it was left out of the program. Plants is a sprawling, fascinating album. Though it is dominated by synthesizer-heavy instrumental pieces with evocative titles, there is a handful of full-blown songs.

The gorgeous, mostly acoustic ballad “Send One Your Love” was a Top Ten R&B single, while the joyous “Outside My Window” registered in the Top 60. Beyond that, there’s the deep classic “Come Back as a Flower,” a gently lapping, piano-led ballad featuring Syreeta on vocals. Otherwise, there are playfully oddball tracks like “Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug,” where Wonder chirps “Please don’t eat me!” through robotizing effects, and “A Seed’s a Star,” which incorporates crowd noise, a robotized monologue, and a shrieking Tata Vega over a funkier and faster version of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

The album is not for everyone, but it suited its purpose and allowed its maker an amount of creative wiggle room that few major-label artists experience.

 

Side one

1. Earth’s Creation (Instrumental) - 4:06
2. The First Garden (Instrumental) - 4:48
3. Voyage to India (Instrumental) - 6:29
4. Same Old Story - 3:44
5. Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug - 2:25
6. Ai No, Sono - 2:06

 Side two

1. Seasons (Instrumental) - 2:53
2. Power Flower - 5:29
3. Send One Your Love (Instrumental) - 3:05
4. Race Babbling - 8:51

 Side three

1. Send One Your Love - 4:01
2. Outside My Window - 5:29
3. Black Orchid - 3:47
4. Ecclesiastes - 3:42
5. Kesse Ye Lolo De Ye - 3:03
6. Come Back as a Flower (Lead vocals: Syreeta Wright) - 4:59

 Side four

1. A Seed’s a Star/Tree Medley - 5:53
2. The Secret Life of Plants - 4:16
3. Tree (Instrumental) - 5:47
4. Finale (Instrumental) - 7:01

Personnel

• Stevie Wonder – instruments, synthesizer, vocals
• Syreeta Wright – vocals on "Come Back as a Flower"
• Bill Wolfer, Clark Spangler, Gordon Bahary – synthesizer, sequencer, programming
• Ben Bridges, Michael Sembello, Rick Zunigar – guitar
• Nathan Watts, Henry Franklin – bass
• Ron Kersey – Fender Rhodes on "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley"
• Dennis Davis – electronic drums on "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley"
• Earl DeRouen – congas, bongos, backing vocals on "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley"
• Joe Johnson – bells on "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley"
• Ibrahim Camara – djembe, congas, bells, drums, vocals on "Kesse Ye Lolo De Ye"
• Lamine Konté – kora, vocals on "Kesse Ye Lolo De Ye"
• Josie James – vocals on "Race Babbling"
• Táta Vega – vocals on "A Seed's a Star/Tree Medley"

Companies, etc.

• Produced For – Taurus Productions
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Motown Record Corporation
• Published By – Jobete Music Co., Inc.
• Published By – Black Bull Music

Credits

• Art Direction – John Cabalka
• Coordinator [Album Cover Coordination] – Keith Harris 
• Engineer [Additional] – Jay Mark
• Engineer [Additional], Programmed By [Synthesizer] – John Fischbach
• Engineer [Assistant] – Ann Bolling, Bob Harlan, Charlie Brewer, Jim Dougherty, Laura Livingston, Lindy Griffin
• Engineer, Mixed By, Producer [Associate], Programmed By [Synthesizer] – Gary Olazabal
• Illustration [Album Package] – Margo Nathas
• Lacquer Cut By – J.H.
• Layout – Ginny Livingston
• Liner Notes [Bambara Translation] – Abdoulaye Soumare
• Liner Notes [Japanese Translation] – Kenji Miura, Mary Ann Monkoski, Yoshi J. Maejima
• Lyrics By – Stevie Wonder (tracks: A4 to A6, B4 to C2, C5, D1, D2)
• Mastered By – Stan Ricker
• Music By, Performer [Instruments], Producer, Programmed By [Synthesizer] – Stevie Wonder
• Programmed By [Synthesizer, Sequencer] – Bill Wolf, Clark Spangler, Gordon Bahary
• Technician [Computer Music Melodian Design] – Harry Mandell

Notes
Release:  1979
Format:  2LP 
Genre:   Soul
Label:  Motown Records
Catalog#   1A 158-62492

Vinyl: VG+
Cover: VG+ (Gatefold)

Prijs: €20,00

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973) - Lp

Stevland Hardaway Morris (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins, May 13, 1950), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist.

A child prodigy, he is considered to be one of the most critically and commercially successful musical performers of the late 20th century.
Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, and he continued performing and recording for Motown into the 2010s.
He has been blind since shortly after birth.

In 1961, when aged 11, Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy", to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder.

Innervisions is the 16th studio album by American musician Stevie Wonder, released August 3, 1973, on the Tamla label for Motown Records, a landmark recording of his "classic period". The nine tracks of Innervisions encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug abuse in "Too High", through inequality and systemic racism in "Living for the City", to love in the ballads "All in Love Is Fair" and "Golden Lady". The album's closer, "He's Misstra Know-It-All", is a scathing attack on then-US President Richard Nixon, similar to Wonder's song a year later, "You Haven't Done Nothin'".

As with many of Stevie Wonder's albums, the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the ARP synthesizer used prominently throughout the album.
The instrument was a common motif among musicians of the time because of its ability to construct a complete sound environment.

Wonder was the first black artist to experiment with this technology on a mass scale, and Innervisions was hugely influential on the subsequent future of commercial black music.
He also played all or virtually all instruments on six of the album's nine tracks, making most of Innervisions a representative one-man band.

Innervisions has been considered by many fans, critics, and colleagues to be among Stevie Wonder's finest work and one of the great albums in popular music history. The album was revisited countless times in different lists of the greatest albums of all time.


Side A
A1. Too High  (4:37)
A2. Visions  (5:17)
A3. Living For The City (7:26)
A4. Golden Lady  (5:00)

Side B
B1. Higher Ground  (3:54)
B2. Jesus Children Of America  (4:04)
B3. All In Love Is Fair (3:45)
B4. Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing  (4:55)
B5. He’s Misstra Know-It-All  (6:06)

Personnel
Recordist – Dan Barbiero, Austin Godsey
Tape operator – Gary Olazabal
Mastering – George Marino
Recording coordinators – John Harris, Ira Tucker Jr.
Synthesizer programming – Robert Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil
Album art – Efram Wolff

Notes
Release: 1973
Genre: Funk / Soul
Label: Tamla Motown Records
Catalog# 5c 062 94665
Price € 10,00

Vinyl:  Goed
Cover:  Goed

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