Maybe it's that there was specific cover art that was made - which is the cover I'm using here. Since the cover was never used, Steely Dan bought the artwork and used it for their "Royal Scam" album.
Or maybe it's just that Morrison had put out an album a year since the start of his solo career, but in 1975 he didn't put out an album at all. Then he didn't put one out in 1976 either. So there must have been a lot of scuttlebutt at the time wondering what he was doing, or not doing.
IF there was a credible album song list from another this time, I would use it. But since there isn't, I'm just continuing what I'm doing, which is sorting songs by the year they were recorded. This album contains four songs from 1974 and five songs from 1975. I've got many more songs from 1975 which will go on the next album.
Had this album come out in 1975, or one along these lines, I'm sure it would have done as well as his other 1970s albums. In particular, the song "Naked in the Jungle" is great, and should have been a hit.
01 Naked in the Jungle (Van Morrison)
02 Mechanical Bliss (Van Morrison)
03 Harmonica Boogie [Instrumental] (Van Morrison)
04 John Henry (Van Morrison)
05 When I Deliver (Van Morrison)
06 Tell Me (Van Morrison)
07 I Have Finally Come to Realise (Van Morrison)
08 The Street Only Knew Your Name (Van Morrison)
09 Joyous Sound [First Version] (Van Morrison)
10 Buffy Flow [Instrumental] (Van Morrison)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15853455/VanMrsn_1975_MchanicalBlss_atse.zip.html
Thanks to Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog, who pointed out that the Mechanical Bliss cover differs somewhat from the Steely Dan version, in that the Steely Dan one added a man sleeping on a bench at the bottom. I have replaced the cover with the more accurate one.
Was waiting on this one!
ReplyDeleteThe sleeping man on the bench was added for the Steely Dan version, and absent in the original. "John Henry" and "Western Plain" were recorded at the same sessions as some of the others you use here.
ReplyDeleteDo you know of a version of that pic without the man? If you do, I'd be glad to use that instead.
DeleteAs for those two songs you mention, they're going on my next Morrison album, along with many more from 1975. I have about an album and a half worth of songs he recorded in 1975, so I couldn't put them all on one album.
Thank you for this page. I really think is great as a Van Morrison fan (and Steely Dan fan, too)! Is there a better link? The current link wants to install some sort of Flash and looks suspicious. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteIn 2014, I found and downloaded an album which that source called Mechanical Bliss, Discs 1 and 2. I no longer recall the source. That download included 19 tracks, but not tracks 3, 4, 6 and 10 in your listing.
ReplyDeleteIt included the following tracks which you do not mention:
Come On Out Child
Feedback Out on Highway 101 (low fi)
Flamingos Fly
Foggy Mountain Top (low fi)
I Shall Sing (low fi)
It Hurts To Want It So Bad (low fi)
Laughing In The Wind
Much Binding In The March (low fi)
T For Texas
This Is Not The Twilight Zone
You Move Me (low fi).
The version of Joyous Sound in that download is also low fi.
Some of the tracks not included in your list appear on official releases, notably on Philosopher's Stone. I've not compared the versions on Mechanical Bliss to the official releases.
Some tracks on this Mechanical Bliss do not appear on official releases, as far as I can tell.
"Mechanical Bliss" is often a catch all term for any and all lost Van Morrison album from the 1970s. That's obviously the case with the album you found. That's just a collection of unreleased songs over a many year period. For instance, "I Shall Sing" is an outtake from "Moondance" in 1970, and has nothing to do with any album named "Mechanical Bliss" (which never was a double album anyway).
DeleteI believe I have all the songs you mentioned, but I put them on different albums according to the years they were recorded. Check out all the various Van Morrison albums I've posted, esp. the non-live ones:
http://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/search/label/Van%20Morrison