Van Morrison - Mechanical Bliss (1975)

I've seen quite a few requests for this album online, and to be honest, not being the greatest Van fan, I'd never heard of it. In 1975 Van Morrison was recording songs intended for the follow-up to 1974's 'Veedon Fleece', to be called either 'Stiff Upper Lip', 'Naked In The Jungle', 'Not Working For You', or the eventual winner with the fans 'Mechanical Bliss'. About a dozen and a half songs were taped, but the album was abandoned somewhere along the line, and the actual follow-up was released two years later in the form of 'A Period Of Transition'. We've taken the songs which were generally agreed to be likely contenders for inclusion, to give a standard length vinyl album of the time. And no, you're not seeing things with the cover art, as this picture was first offered to Morrison for the sleeve of 'Mechanical Bliss', but when he turned it down it went to Steely Dan for use with their 'Royal Scam' album. The man sleeping on the bench, which you're used to seeing on 'The Royal Scam' cover, was added later for that album, but this is the original painting before the alteration, and so this is what the sleeve could have looked like if this album had ever been officially issued. I've left the original textured artwork that I posted in the download folder, and you can save this new cover from this page.

Track listing

01 Joyous Sound
02 Mechanical Bliss
03 The Street Only Knew Your Name
04 This Is Not The Twilight Zone
05 Naked In The Jungle
06 Flamingos Fly
07 Foggy Mountain Top
08 When I Deliver
09 I Have Finally Come To Realise

This track listing has been put together by David Chance over at the van-the-man.info site. I wanted to include the instrumental 'Much Binding In The March' but the only version I could find was decidedly lo-fi, so I've substituted 'The Street Only Knew Your Name' from the same sessions. I must admit that apart from the very weird title track, I'm quite impressed with this album and I might become a bit more of a fan.