Van Morrison - Not Working for You - Non-Album Tracks (1975-1976)

Before I say anything else, if you've downloaded the last Van Morrison album I've posted, "Mechanical Bliss," please downloaded it again, because I've added another song to it. The reason is because right as I was about to post this album, I randomly stumbled upon another song for it which I never knew even existed - "Oh, Didn't He Ramble." (Morrison does all the vocals for it, and it dates to 1976, but it actually appears on a 2011 anthology album by Chris Barber.) This addition made this album over 50 minutes long, and the previous one was just over 40 minutes long, so I moved one song ("John Henry") to make both albums within the reasonable album length limits of the time.

Anyway, with this album, we're finally getting to the end of an era, from about 1968 to 1976, in which Van Morrison pretty much had an unreleased album's worth of quality material for every single year! I do have one more stray tracks album from 1977 to post, but it's entirely made of cover versions. After that, I only have one more stray tracks album covering the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I read that Bob Dylan claimed that up until about the start of 1968, new songs came to him easily and often, but ever since then he's had to put a lot of mental effort into writing a new song. I think we can surmise that something similar happened to Morrison around 1975, since there's a noticeable drop in both the quantity and quality of his songwriting right after that, in my opinion. (Only two of the songs here actually date from 1976, and both of them are covers.) Of course, he still had lots of great music to make after 1976, but it was usually more hit and miss. From 1967 to 1975, he must have had one of the greatest songwriting runs of any musician, ever!

For the album title, I once again stole one of the titles he was considering at the time, but never used. It's close to the title of the first song here. Plus, it's a reflection of his longstanding antagonism towards his record companies. I think it's a safe bet that he's written more songs about feeling ripped off by his corporate overlords than any other major musician.

By the way, the last song here, "Tura Lura Lural," is a traditional Irish song he did for "The Last Waltz" in 1976. But the version that made that album is a live one, and this is a much less well known (but still excellent) rehearsal version.

01 I'm Not Working for You (Van Morrison)
02 Western Plain (Van Morrison)
03 Feedback on Highway 101 (Van Morrison)
04 Come On Out Child (Van Morrison)
05 Oh Didn't He Ramble (Van Morrison with Chris Barber & Dr. John)
06 Down to Earth (Van Morrison)
07 It Hurts to Want It So Bad (Van Morrison)
08 You Move Me (Van Morrison)
09 Tura Lura Lural [That's an Irish Lullaby] (Van Morrison & the Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15257412/VanMrsn_1976_NtWrkingforYu_atse.zip.html

The photo on the cover comes from the Last Waltz concert in 1976.