In the mid-70s, when Moog was in the ascendancy, composer Mort Garson created an album for plant life and its owners (or caretakers). Mother Earth’s Plantasia had the tagline “warm earth music for plants… and the people who love them.”
The history suggests it was never going to be a massive seller, not only because of its rather niche title but also because it was only sold to people who bought a plant from Los Angeles’ Mother Earth or a mattress from Sears. Quirky marketing indeed. As such, the album remained a curious niche item which in the 2010s saw the album gain a cult following.
In 2019 the indie record label Sacred Bones released the album across streaming and physical formats. The vinyl version came with a booklet detailing the correct way to care for various plants plus a download card embedded with wildflower seeds.
Although Garson had found success in the ’50s and ’60s as a writer and composer for the likes of Cliff Richard and Doris Day, this music, featuring the Moog, was clearly a bigger labour of love.
Garson passed away in 2008 so he would never have experienced the resurgence his album found in the 21st century, although his daughter suggested that he would have been “totally pleased to know that people re really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time.”
Whether the plants like it is another matter, but really, if we can talk to them, why not serenade them with music?
