Back in 1978, there was a movie called Journey Through Secret Life Of Plants. I heard that it was a documentary flim that didn't have wide screening. It also had Stevie Wonder in the flim singing some of the music from that outstanding soundtrack, Stevie Wonder's JTTSLOP. I've never heard of it. But, I once saw the movie on www.ebay.com, with the green clamshell case. I've never saw it, but I heard it wasn't worth seeing. I once read somewhere that in the movie, Stevie performs with an orchestra. To my advantage, though I haven't seen it, it's strange. Now for the album, it's outstanding. I mean, after he released the briliant, Songs In The Key Of Life, I think that he just had the feeling of experimenting, fearlessly. My favorite song off that album has to be Black Orchid. It really has him expressing himself in a pleasing and enjoyable manner. Is it true that the LP had been purfumed by the sweet smell of roses?Rumor has it that the inner sleeves had been purfumed by the fragrance of roses. I have the 2-disc version of it and it sounds beautiful. What do you think of the movie and album? Did the sleeves have the smell of roses?

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and yes, I also think it's one of Stevies best works! but I have never seen the movie... like most folks

There are some people who claim that they saw the movie,but I heard that the film was never actually shown in theatres or released anywhere.That movie is a total mystery.Similarly,the album is now out-of-print,or at least,extremely hard to find these days.In the late 90s,when Motown were re-mastering Stevie's classic 70s albums,there were tentative plans for 'Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants' to get the remastered treatment too,but it never happened.Wouldn't it be cool if they released it along with a DVD of the movie too?

DavidEye said:

Damn, 3 discs!

No, the album didn't smell of roses (and at the time of release many critics compared the album to something with a far less less pleasant smell.)

This website suggests that the film was never completed, which is something I've read before:

http://www.memorabletv.co...wonder.htm
.

I liked the album.
My favorite songs were Power Flower and Come Back As A Flower.
I even liked The Venus Flytrap & The Bug.

Love & Light,

Quietsoul

I don't get why critics hated on this album. It's as thematically cohesive as a concept album can be. Perhaps they were looking at it as a "follow up" to Songs, rather than an album that can and should stand on its own.

OdysseyMiles said:

I suspect that there were several reasons.

I'm sure it was held up in comparison to SITKOL as you suggest, and I personally don't think the songs on the album had as much depth and range in terms of quality as its predecessor.

I also think that some music critics viewed 'concept albums' at the time as very unfashionable, and this may have counted against it.

I guess we'll never know whether the absence of a film to judge the music's merits as a soundtrack was a help or not.
.

I LOVE this album! I made the mistake of avoiding it back in the day because my aunt (who is also a Stevie fan) said it wasn't his best work. But when I was in France, I picked it up from a small music store (and avoided import fees!) and it was GREAT! I even ordered a JTTSLOP banner off eBay ($40 bucks!!!!). It's hanging in my bedroom.

Fave song was Outside My Window. I played that song every single morning until I graduated high school. Made me so HAPPY! LALALALA-LA-LA-LA-LALALA...

I have seen the movie in the mid 90s on a PBS channel, as far as if it was a good movie, it depends on your taste. It was a documentary that pretty much showed that trees,plants,leaves & other veggies are living creatures. They did an experiment with a head of cabbage, which intailed a monitor & electrodes hooked up to a plant seperate from the cabbage. They then cut the head of cabbage in half, once they did that, the plant that was hooked up to the monitor reacted by making the line on the monitor go off the scale. If I remeber correctly, they even had some type of sound monitor, that once the cabbage was cut in half, the plant seemed to scream! The soundtrack was criticaly acclaimed, but the album did'nt sell good. To be honest, it's a very good album, it has a lot of wonderful songs like Power Flower,Black Orchid, & Send One Your love(with a dozen rose). Some of the music has that disco flava, but trust me don't be fooled, that album is off da hook! It just shows you how far ahead Stevie Wonder is of all the other artist in the music biz, with the possible exception of Earth,Wind & Fire.

YticEnots said:

Yeah, ur right about the soundtrack. I personally thought that when he did Songs In the Key Of Life, he was crossing over to pop and with the JTTSLOP soundtrack, alot of his fans and the R&B community thought that he was turning his back on soul music. Stevie was still hot and popular at the time of this release and the album only peaked at #4 on the pop charts. The soundtrack is great, but I was disappointed that it didn't even sale that good. I wonder how many copies did Songs In The Key Of Life sale? I heard that it was his best selling record of the 70's.
[This message was edited Sat Aug 28 1:30:55 2004 by silverchild]

When I'm in the best of moods or want to be there it's time for Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants. It's a shame that not everyone can appreciate the greatness of this album. Words don't do it-- or any art for that matter-- justice.

DavidEye said:

I actually paid $32 bucks for mine at amazon.com. I was so..so..so mad. How could Universal/Motown skip over this album?