MikeM argues some dumb bullshit and his premise stands

All things must pass is a double...
If you throw the 3rd lp Apple jam in the rubbish bin

. . . and it was George Harrison's third solo album.

Although Wonderwall Music appears almost universally as the first entry in George Harrison solo discographies, it was in fact not a George Harrison solo album, but a Motion Picture Soundtrack album. And such albums have always been put in a separate category, apart from artists' own releases.

Harrison did not write a group of songs for the purposes of putting them out as a solo album — he was contracted to write a group of songs intended to appear on the film soundtrack of the motion picture Wonderwall. These songs were subsequently released as that film's soundtrack album.

Here's a quote from George about this (emphasis is mine):

"I was getting so into Indian music by then that I decided to use the assignment as an excuse for a musical anthology to help spread the word."

Who made up this rule, and did anybody tell Curtis Mayfield, or Prince, or Pink Floyd?

First, let's eliminate Purple Rain from the discussion, since the film itself came about at Prince's insistence and carried plot elements and themes that he himself developed.

It's certainly true that these albums are regularly listed in each artist's discographies. But that doesn't change the fact that their genesis is entirely different from those same artists' non-soundtrack albums, as I detailed in this post.

Would Curtis Mayfield ever have written a song called "SuperFly" or one entitled "Freddie's Dead" if the movie had not called for songs with these titles? Would Pink Floyd had written exactly the same songs that appeared on Obscured by Clouds if they hadn't looked at scenes from La Vallée first?

While I don’t disagree with your statement he was also contracted to write songs for his solo albums in the assignment set out in his record contract.

Well, no. If an artist has a contract with a record label, it is understood that he or she will produce an album or albums with songs he/she has written organically for that album. It will be his/her choice of the style of music employed and the lyrics written. Even the most draconian of producers rarely says "Write a song with this title or this theme for the album you're doing."

This is an entirely different process from writing songs that are intended to serve as the soundtrack for a motion picture. By their nature, they will have a certain style that fits the parameters of scenes they're intended to be played behind. If they have lyrics, they will relate in some fashion to the characters, plot or theme of the movie.

I’ll make sure I sign with your record company when my current contract is fulfilled! I’d love a situation where Label executives, A&R, Producers and general bean counters don’t interfere and let us just get on with expressing ourselves.

I'll assume that you are an artist who has not achieved any great degree of fame or sales to this point.

But even if this is the case, can you describe a situation where you were told by one or more of the individuals whose positions you list above "Write a song with this title, this premise and these lyrics"?

I think the real concern is whether the soundtrack in question bears a strong resemblance to what the artist normally does.. Superfly is a Curtis Mayfield album (maybe even his best one). Obscured by Clouds is a Pink Floyd album. On the other hand, I think most fans would call McCartney his solo debut, rather than Family Way.

I can agree up to a point, but my premise stands that the genesis of these albums differs from the genesis of other albums in these artists' catalogs. Sure, they inevitably bring the same skills and some of the same approach when they're writing to a premise they did not originate. But it's still the case that these soundtrack albums do not come from exactly the same place as their non-soundtrack ones, for which they're under no pre-ordained restrictions.

It's also still the case that, from the record industry's viewpoint, soundtrack albums have traditionally been put into a different category than regular ones. This has understandably waned over the past 50 or 60 years, when artists who are otherwise known for their own entirely original work have been increasingly used for soundtrack albums. That's kind of a different ballgame from the kind of soundtrack album that consists mostly of short snippets of instrumental music (not counting movie musical soundtracks).