I gave 'em a rushed listen but overall, I'm digging the latter's sound more(even tho I respect the fact that he played EVERYTHING in the 1st one). I'm loving the song "Bird of Beauty". What do u guys think of these two albums?

I take a huge shame in admitting this but beside these recently bought ones, I only have " Songs in the Key of Life" and "Original Musiquarium I".

My favorite Stevie album is a tie between Songs in the Key of Life and Fulfillingness' First Finale. Fullfillingness is flawless, imo.

Music of My Mind is pretty good, but he would take it to the next level and cement his greatness with Talking Book....

rialb gave me those albums with tons of Funkadelic & Parliament albums...havent got 2 Stevie yet..now im on a Funkadelic trip..look for my praise of "Cosmic Slop" soon

You already know what I'm gonna say, Harley.

okaypimpn said:

Thats exactly WHY I posted this thread, believe it or not. I want you to tell me what you think about BOTH in details!

And another thing, should I buy the album in yo other forum's siggy? Speak up, bruh!

Harlepolis said:

harley...these were both WEll received when they came out...at the time
i thought MUSIC was the superior album...but hindsight and a trillion listens
late ri'd say Fullingness first finale is better....!!!

bird of beuty is the CUT!!!!! (minnie's voice is right on time!!!)

Harlepolis said:

*taking a deep breath*

Okay, Music of My Mind is a very important album in Stevie's career because it was the first album that he solely produced, wrote, arranged and played on by his damn self (with the help of a trombone solo on "Love Having You Around" by Art Barron, a guitar solo on "Where Were You When I Needed You" by Buzzy Felton and Yvonne Wright's contributing lyrics for "Evil"). In a sense, Stevie was letting Barry and the other execs at Motown know that this was him and his sound. A lot of people kind of overlook this album because Stevie was still juggling with finding a sound he could call his own. He was experimenting with the talkbox on the opening track, "Love Having You Around," and "Girl Blue" (which Roger Troutman later became notorious for using) and this was the first time he ever used the Arp and Moog synths courtesy of his engineers Robert Morgouleff and Malcolm Cecil. It wasn't until he struck back with Talking Book that people caught on as this being the "Sound of Stevie" so to speak. Nevertheless, I love the album (as I do all of Stevie's), but the track that really stands out to me is "Where Were You When I Needed You."

As for Fulfillingness' First Finale, this was like Stevie's most laid-back yet spiritual album. He recorded it right after his near fatal accident that left him in a coma for 10 days. "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Miles Away" (my favorite track from here) recaptures his oneness with The Creator and tells the story of God's favor towards those that belive and trust in Him. He also sings about the effect of drugs on one's mind in "Bird of Beauty" (another one of my favorites, too! ) In a sense this was the "closing chapter" album of the trilogy for Stevie (the first being Talking Book and the second being Innervisions). If you notice, when he came back with Songs In The Key of Life it sounded NOTHING like its predecessors.

In all, I think they're both great albums, but you're seriously doing yourself an injustice by not picking up this one right 'chere...



I'm tellin' you, Harley, when you hear it, it's gonna blow you away!

Well, there's my

Music of my mind is my absolute Stevie favourite.
Just listen 2 this album the whole way thru,from start 2 finish in
headphones.Hear those hypnotic moogs sweeping all over.
"Superwoman",how that runs so smoothly into "Where were you when I needed you".
Hear the joy in "I love every little thing about you" & "Happier than the morning sun".
The feeling of falling in love.Or just listen 2 that intro 2 "Seems so long"
Like the breeze & when that melody starts with the moog playing it,
just the first 2 notes at the beginning ,like he hesitates.Just stuff like that that
makes this my favourite album of his.
/peace Manki

I really like both Of them... Music Of My Mind was the turning point- it was such a leap away, a radical departure from everything he had been doing up to that point, (songs like " Uptight", "My Cherie Amour, and " For Once In My Life"). After turning 21 and renegotiating his deal with Motown, He and his collaborators Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff block-booked themselves into Electric Lady studios with the "TONTO" - a giant complex of synthesizers including the ARP and MOOG - and came up with what would be the basis for the next four albums: Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fullfillingness' First Finale. A lot of the songs for all of these albums were done during that period at Electric Lady, although he continued to rework and revamp them over the next couple of years. He discontinued his association with Cecil and Margouleff(and stopped using the TONTO) after '74, which is another major reason his next album, "Songs in the Key Of Life" had such a different sound.(although they're both credited in Songs' liner notes.)

Music of My Mind is like the first experiment with his newfound artistic freedom. Fullfillingness( finished after his coma), as Okaypimpin said, eventually turned out to be more of a coming-to-grips with life album . IMO, Innervisions is the best of these 4 albums( I think it's the most well rounded, with Talking Book being a very Close second, then Fullfillingness and Music of My Mind...But that's just my opinion... They're all Four Star(excuse me, Five Star) albums!
[This message was edited Wed Apr 21 15:46:48 2004 by paligap]

Harle, get lost in those albums, f'real. I recently spun them along with Innervisions and Songs... (Okaypimpin, I nearly threw on Secret Life, but i didn't want to OD on Stevie! You're right: That album's cool, too!)

Also, if y'all can get your hands on it:







.
[This message was edited Wed Apr 21 17:09:56 2004 by ThreadBare]

ThreadBare said:

Most def! Let's not forget her classic debut also...



Stevie's re-arrangment of "I Love Every Little Thing About You" is amazing!!!!!

okaypimpn said:

Yes Lawd!! Also has the great "Cause we've Ended as Lovers", as well as "Black Maybe" and " Keep Him Like He Is"! These are can almost be considered lost Stevie Wonder albums...Grab'em if you can!

paligap said:

Yep. Syreeta's vocals are so soothing on "Black Maybe." I just love her voice.

Did anybody see the shelved movie?

Whats the story behind it and who acted in it?

Holl!

Harlepolis said:

The movie never saw the light of day (or so the story goes). Some people "claim" they have seen it, but there is no production or distribution record of it. Stevie completed the album before the movie was finished and for whatever reason they either shelved or destroyed it all together.

He even tried to tour for this album with a full orchestra along with his Wonderlove band, but people didn't receive it well because they hadn't seen the movie. It's a shame, though, cause it was the mans best work to date IMO.
[This message was edited Thu Apr 22 12:32:35 2004 by okaypimpn]

okaypimpn said:

manray10 said:

You mean this one?



That's my favorite pic of him.

Thanks for clearing that up, manray10 a.k.a. "Not True!!"

I was really just going by this....
http://imdb.com/title/tt0078217/
[This message was edited Thu Apr 22 13:19:41 2004 by okaypimpn]

okaypimpn said:[quote]

manray10 said:

You mean this one?



That's my favorite pic of him.

Thanks for clearing that up, manray10 a.k.a. "Not True!!"

I was really just going by this....
http://imdb.com/title/tt0078217/

I hear ya'!! It's up to us Wonderlovers to tell the truth.

ThreadBare said:

it's almost impossible to get this on cd for under $75

manray10 said:

Good lookin' out!

Scrapluv said:

I paid about $13 for mine.

I only have her IMPORT compilation!

In all, I think they're both great albums, but you're seriously doing yourself an injustice by not picking up this one right 'chere...



I'm tellin' you, Harley, when you hear it, it's gonna blow you away!

Well, there's my [/quote]


That album is perfect. Unfortunately, I'm not in the frame of mind where I can enjoy it like I used to.

whodknee said:

That album is perfect. Unfortunately, I'm not in the frame of mind where I can enjoy it like I used to. [/quote]

What do you mean?

okaypimpn said:

You musta got this like 10 years ago. I finally had to break down and pay $100 for it because I couldn't find it anywhere else.

psykosoul said:

Whenever they reissued it on CD.

Harlepolis said:

Co-sign. What do you mean?

okaypimpn said:[quote]

psykosoul said:

damn, you were spot on then,

if you had bought mutliple copies, you could be making out hand over fist on ebay

Scrapluv said:[quote]

okaypimpn said:

There are about 10 used copies of the "Journey through the Secret Life Of Plants" cd at amazon.com ranging from $20.00 to about $27.00...

okaypimpn said:

Secret Life of Plants is a brilliant concept album.