Van Morrison talks about his new album, an excess of songs, and his Covid backlash
Van Morrison is making more music than ever. On his latest album, Remembering Now, he’s catching up on songs that he recorded years ago
Few musicians are so productive in their old age. For quite some time now, Van Morrison – now 79 years old – has brought out a new album every year, and now he has a problem that other recording artists would envy: too much material.
The restless Belfast belter of soulful stream-of-consciousness has recorded so much music that he has a backlog of songs waiting to be released.
“There are new arrangements and projects that have just been sitting there gathering dust,” Morrison says in an interview published on his website. “Distribution can only deal with so much at a time. It’d be difficult to get out two records a year. One is manageable.”
With his latest album, Remembering Now, Van Morrison is tackling some of the backlog with songs he recorded years ago.
One is the moody opening number “Down to Joy”, which film buffs should recognise as the Oscar-nominated track from the 2021 film Belfast by Kenneth Branagh.