Van Morrison is looking at ‘alternative outlets’ to release ‘mountain of material’

Van Morrison has said that he wants to start looking at alternative outlets to release the “mountain of material” he has ready to go.

The 77-year-old singer, best known for hits such as “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Moondance” and “Crazy Love” said that he’s had to stop himself writing new songs, because he has so many already.

Morrison is releasing his forthcoming album Moving on Skiffle in March – marking his 44th studio record.

The legendary artist says that traditional labels are only able to put out a few records each year, which doesn’t cater for the amount of music he wants to release.

"It’s been a problem getting records out, so I’ve been looking at other alternative outlets,” said Morrision while being interviewed by Billy Bragg for the April issue of Mojo magazine.

"The big companies can only do one or two big records a year. This one has taken five months to get it out from its delivery,” he said. “So there’s no way they can cope with two a year even. But I’ve always been prolific.”

Morrison said that he continues to work on tracks he recorded back in the seventies, eighties and nineties because there is still stuff he wants to release from that time that never made it onto an album.

“People laugh when I tell them this but back in the day Warner Brothers only wanted 22 minutes a side for their albums,” he said.

“They were saying to me that it can’t be over 22 minutes a side because the levels drop and all this. So I was recording maybe 40 songs but only 10 ended up on the album.”

He continued: “So my plan is now to find an alternative outlet to get all that stuff out.”

Questioned if he’s writing brand new songs, Morrison said: "Oh yeah, in fact, I have to curb the writing, because once I write stuff, I want to go in and record it, so I have to curb it - I have so much stuff it makes my head spin.

“Original stuff, covers, it’s a mountain of material.”

Last week, the musician vented his fury at Rolling Stone’s new ranking of the Top 200 Singers of All Time, taking issue with the placement of peers such as Joan Baez and Solomon Burke.

“What the f***?” he said. “These people should be in the Top 20 at the very least. It’s nice they mention me, but let’s face it, that’s not reality.”

Moving on Skiffle will be released on 10 March.