Chicapah After conquering the civilized world repeatedly throughout the 70s decade with some of the greatest music of the modern era we of the human race have ever heard, Stevie Wonder decided it was time to occupy himself with something totally different. With the hits from his amazing “Songs in the Key of Life” still thriving in heavy rotation on radio stations from Sydney to Oslo he started working on what would end up being a three-year task of creating a soundtrack for a documentary about greenery. Stevie had long since escaped the bonds of having to answer to record company executives so he was free to explore and venture far into other areas of music at will. Despite his fans being warned that this wasn’t going to be a “normal” record, everyone’s expectations were understandably lofty. When “Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants” finally came out in 1979 it was met with stunned silence because it was so foreign to what we’d all come to expect from Mr. Wonder. I got a copy and gave it a few cursory, head-scratching listens before shelving it while briefly entertaining the thought that Stevie had possibly lost his mind. It sat in my dust-gathering LP stacks for over 3 decades before I recently pried it out in order to give it a fresh, hopefully unbiased assessment and, to my surprise, it’s better than I remember it being. I guess my gross disappointment over not finding another “Sir Duke” in its lilac-scented vinyl grooves so long ago has abated at last and I can now appreciate it more for what it is than what I wanted it to be.

Wonder starts this opus with “Earth’s Creation,” a semi-symphonic piece based around a basic synthesizer bass riff. “The First Garden” has a slight jazz tint to it, featuring birds singing over a lullaby air and his graceful chromatic harmonica. The first half of “Voyage to India” offers a soothing melody that reminds me of Handel’s “Water Music” and then the second half erects a droning Indian aura around Ben Bridges’ sitar. Stevie doesn’t open his mouth until “Same Old Story” comes along. It’s a jazzy ballad harboring a nostalgic hue but there’s no central theme to latch onto. Still, his vocal is, as usual, immaculate. “Venus’ Flytrap and The Bug” is a frivolous treat. It’s an instrumental that has a cool jazz vibe maintained by a walking bass line strolling through it and I find it clever and entertaining. “Ai No Sono” is a densely-synthesized orchestral, Japanese-sounding deal that employs a charming children’s chorale to brighten the mood.

“Seasons” starts with a woman telling a bedtime story to an adolescent while fierce winds howl outside the bedroom window before evolving into a cocktail lounge piano type of ditty that’s more confusing than engaging. “Power Flower” is a slice of contemporary jazz riding atop an R&B rhythm track that contains one of Wonder’s softest vocal performances ever. His delicate tone borders on being feminine. “Send One Your Love (music)” is a lush, Mantovani-styled instrumental snippet of a decent tune yet to arrive but I have to tell you that this arrangement is pretty dang schmaltzy. With its monotonous bass drum beat, “Race Babbling” could be subtitled “Fauna Goes to the Disco.” Stevie and guest Josie James’ electronically altered voices are downright weird but strangely alluring at the same time. Larry Gittens’ trumpet line makes me think of the band War on amphetamines but I sense that Wonder was just allowing his imagination to run wild on this baby and my hat’s off to him for letting it fly.

At this juncture things take a turn for the better with several fine songs in a row. “Send One Your Love” is more typical of what made Stevie such a giant in the biz. It’s an excellent romantic R&B number and the writing is very much up to his high standards. “Outside My Window,” a jazz/pop tune, has a perky shuffle rhythm that upholds the track’s amiable countenance while Michael Sembello’s guitar work adds a dimension of joy. Wonder is a master of composition and “Black Orchid” displays another of his interesting, mature chord progressions. For “Ecclesiastes” a cathedral organ sets up a canon-like atmosphere that hovers over a light marching beat. The synthesized strings on this instrumental are impressive for their time. “Kesse Ye Lolo De Ye” emphasizes African instrumentation and percussion while a chanting chorus carries the melody. “Come Back as a Flower” is a highlight in that it’s a gliding jazz number with a beautiful acoustic piano foundation. Syreeta Wright’s angelic voice is a nice change of pace and her and Stevie’s stacked harmonies are intriguing.

“A Seed’s a Star and Tree Medley” is a funkified deal (compliments of Nathan Watts’ slinky bass playing) with an obvious disco flavor. Since details are scarce about this cut I can’t tell if it’s some kind of live/studio hybrid or what, exactly, but I can inform you that the crazy arrangement is all over the map. The Spanish guitar-driven “The Secret Life of Plants” is very pleasant and soothing as it flows beneath Wonder’s sublime vocal. “Tree” is a lovely, piano-based instrumental that may be too saccharine for some but you can’t help but smile at his ambitious, almost Tchaikovsky-ish attempt at sculpting classic aural grandeur. “Finale” is odd in that it should have been the album’s opening overture because it revisits the majority of the record’s themes. I don’t quite get the thinking behind putting it last but then there’s a lot I don’t savvy about this project.

Word about what this was and what it definitely wasn’t got out fast and the elaborately-packaged double album never found a big audience. The fact that the glorious documentary it was supposed to support never materialized didn’t help much, either. So it continues to float aimlessly like a queer duck in Stevie’s marvelous catalogue of brilliance and be treated like the misunderstood cousin napping in the recliner at the family reunion. For the record, Wonder has stated that it’s one of his top three favorite albums that he’s produced so what do I know? It also has the distinction of being one of the first all-digital recordings and many deem it to be the instigator of what would become the genre known as New Age music. It’s apparent that Stevie put a ton of work into this thing but for me it will always be a bold but uneven experiment, admirable on a technical and innovative level yet failing to generate the emotional response that his songs and music evoke from my heart and soul on a regular basis. It may not be this genius’ finest moment but it wasn’t from lack of trying. Wonder never gave anything less than his best effort and I will forever respect him for that.