His first Swedish album, Ballader och oförskämdheter (Ballads and rudenesses), was released in 1964. His first Dutch album was released in 1972, after ten successful Swedish albums.
He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at events for students. His idiosyncratic humor and social engagement is still gaining him new fans. Cornelis Vreeswijk is often considered as one of the most influential and successful troubadours in Sweden. In 2010 a Swedish drama film, called Cornelis, was made about his life. It was directed by Amir Chamdin.
Cornelis Vreeswijk explained in one of his few interviews that he had taught himself to sing and play in the fifties by imitating his first idols Josh White and Lead Belly. His first album, Ballader och oförskämdheter (Ballads and rudenesses, 1964), was a hit which immediately gained him a large following among the emerging radical student generation. In this period he also played with Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson and his trio. His songs "Ångbåtsblues" ("Steam Boat Blues") and "Jubelvisa för Fiffiga Nanette" ("Joyful song for Clever Nanette") are classics from these recordings. His abrasive, frequently political lyrics and unconventional delivery were a deliberate break with what he was later to describe as a Swedish song tradition of pretty singing and harmless lyrics, "a hobby for the upper classes". Influenced by jazz and blues and especially by the singing style and social criticism of Georges Brassens, Vreeswijk "speak-sings" his "insults", and compels his listeners to pay close attention to the words.
His 1965 loose translation of Allan Sherman's masterpiece "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" remains beloved to Swedes as "Brev från kolonien" (Letter from the summer camp) decades later, and could be said to have passed into folklore.
A political singer with a bohemian lifestyle, Vreeswijk remained controversial in the sixties and early seventies, idolized by his fans but disapproved of by many others for his "rude" language and persistent interest in "unsuitable" people like prostitutes and criminals. Some of his records were blacklisted by the public broadcasting company Sveriges Radio. During this period, he not only wrote and recorded songs now considered classics, such as "Sportiga Marie" ("Athletic Marie") and several affectionate salutes to the ever less employable "Polaren Pär" ("My Buddy Pär"), but he was an actor on the stage, receiving considerable critical acclaim, most notably as Pilate in the Swedish version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He participated in Melodifestivalen (the Swedish preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest) in 1972 with "Önskar du mej, så önskar jag dej", which finished sixth. He also appeared in movies, including Svarta Palmkronor (Black Palm Trees, 1968), which was filmed on location in Brazil. Spending four months in Brazil began Vreeswijk's lifelong interest in Latin American music and social and political conditions, later seen for example in his Victor Jara album of 1978.
Later in his career, Vreeswijk was to gain increasing fame and a wider audience both for his songs and his other work. He published several volumes of poetry in his lifetime and left a considerable manuscript legacy of poems which have been published since. He also became an important musical interpreter of the works of other people, recording the songs of Carl Michael Bellman, Evert Taube, and Lars Forssell. His fresh, bluesy renderings of Bellman and Taube, who had up to then been classics belonging to the "harmless" tradition that Vreeswijk despised, were artistic and commercial successes which extended his fanbase. The choice of Bellman was significant: Bellman's lively, romantic, pastoral, drinking and sometimes bawdy songs have gained him the somewhat undeserved reputation of being a drunken womaniser. Vreeswijk may have enjoyed the association of being "something of a Bellman himself".
Vreeswijk's own best-known songs of the later seventies and early eighties tend to be dark in tone, like "Sist jag åkte jumbojet blues" ("Last time I Went by Jumbojet Blues", a metaphorical bad trip) and "Blues för Fatumeh", both addressing heavy drug addiction. Even though in this period Vreeswijk was a prey of tabloid scandal and was in the news for his drinking problem and his debts (about both of which he spoke with frankness) rather than for his achievements, he remained highly creative and productive and he is also known as the co-writer of the Hep Stars song "Speleman" which was released for their album Songs We Sang 68'
Towards the end of Vreeswijk's life his reputation soared again, aided by the televising of some highly regarded nightclub shows, and by Agneta Brunius' TV documentary Balladen om den flygande holländaren (The Ballad of the Flying Dutchman) in 1986. By the time of his death from liver cancer at the age of fifty, Cornelis Vreeswijk had become an icon of the Swedish music scene, and he was honored with burial at the cemetery of Katarina kyrka, a national cemetery in Stockholm. In 2010, Cornelis, a movie about his life, premiered in Swedish cinemas. Norwegian singer Hans Erik Dyvik Husby (previously in Turbonegro) played the role of Vreeswijk.
In 1966, the Dutch broadcasting organisation VARA invited Vreeswijk to the Netherlands. He translated several of his songs into Dutch, and wrote a couple of new ones. One of his songs, "De nozem en de non" ("The Greaser and the Nun"), was released as a single, without much popular success. His first Dutch album was only released in 1972, after ten successful Swedish albums. 100,000 copies of Cornelis Vreeswijk were sold, and the single "Veronica" became a big hit after it was picked up by the pirate radio station Veronica. His old song "De nozem en de non" was then re-released with much success. His later albums could not match the success of the first one, and Vreeswijk never achieved the fame in the Netherlands that he did in Sweden.
Nowadays, only "De nozem en de non" is still known by the general Dutch public. Vreeswijk still has some fans in the Netherlands, however, and in 2000 the Cornelis Vreeswijk society was founded.
One reason for his lack of popularity in the Netherlands was the impression that Cornelis Vreeswijk was a bit old-fashioned. Because of his long stay in Sweden, the Dutch pronunciation and idiom that he had learned to speak in his youth were out-of-date in the seventies and eighties.
Although he was fluent in both Dutch and Swedish, the latter became his primary language. His Stockholm-accented Swedish was famously witty and expressive, and in an interview he once suggested that the process of learning the language in his teens might have energized his use of it: "It doesn't just fall over you like when you're a baby and fed daily with words and food. You become freer, less respectful. ... Swedish is such a different language. Pure, distinct, beautiful. It has few synonyms. But they're many enough for me".
Balladen om herr Fredrik Åkare och den söta fröken Cecilia Lind
Cornelis Vreeswijk Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
och fullmånen lyser som var den av glas.
Där dansar Fredrik Åkare kind emot kind
med lilla fröken Cecilia Lind.
Hon dansar och blundar så nära intill,
hon följer i dansen precis vart han vill.
Han för och hon följer så lätt som en vind,
Säg var det för det Fredrik Åkare sa:
Du doftar så gott och du dansar så bra.
Din midja är smal och barmen är trind.
Vad du är vacker, Cecilia Lind.
Men dansen tog slut och vart skulle dom gå?
Dom bodde så nära varandra ändå.
Till slut kom dom fram till Cecilias grind.
Nu vill jag bli kysst, sa Cecilia Lind.
Vet hut, Fredrik Åkare, skäms gamla karln!
Cecilia Lind är ju bara ett barn.
Ren som en blomma, skygg som en hind.
Jag fyller snart sjutton, sa Cecilia Lind.
Och stjärnorna vandra och timmarna fly
och Fredrik är gammal men månen är ny.
Ja, Fredrik är gammal men kärlek är blind.
Åh, kyss mig igen, sa Cecilia Lind.
The lyrics of Cornelis Vreeswijk's song Balladen om herr Fredrik Åkare och den söta fröken Cecilia Lind tell a story of a young couple, Fredrik Åkare and Cecilia Lind, who dance together at a party in Öckerö loge. As they dance cheek to cheek, Cecilia is blushing, even though she is following Fredrik's lead effortlessly. Fredrik compliments her beauty and asks her home, but Cecilia reminds him that she is still young and innocent, despite her approaching seventeenth birthday. Eventually, Fredrik and Cecilia arrive at her house, and she asks to be kissed again. Despite the large age difference between the two, the song declares that love is blind and that the night belongs to them.
Line by Line Meaning
Från Öckerö loge hörs dragspel och bas
The sound of accordion and bass is coming from the Öckerö barn, and the full moon is shining like it was made of glass.
och fullmånen lyser som var den av glas.
The full moon is shining bright and illuminating like it's made of glass.
Där dansar Fredrik Åkare kind emot kind
Fredrik Åkare and Cecilia Lind are dancing cheek to cheek.
med lilla fröken Cecilia Lind.
Fredrik Åkare is dancing with the young miss Cecilia Lind.
Hon dansar och blundar så nära intill,
Cecilia Lind is dancing and closing her eyes, so close to Fredrik.
hon följer i dansen precis vart han vill.
She follows his moves, wherever Fredrik wants her to go.
Han för och hon följer så lätt som en vind,
Fredrik leads and Cecilia follows as light as a breeze.
Men säg varför rodnar Cecilia Lind?
Why is Cecilia Lind blushing, tell me why?
Säg var det för det Fredrik Åkare sa:
Was it because of what Fredrik Åkare said?
Du doftar så gott och du dansar så bra.
Perhaps because he praised her scent and her dance moves.
Din midja är smal och barmen är trind.
He also complimented her slim waist and curvy bust.
Vad du är vacker, Cecilia Lind.
He was enchanted by her beauty, Cecilia Lind.
Men dansen tog slut och vart skulle dom gå?
The dance is over now, where should they go?
Dom bodde så nära varandra ändå.
They both lived so close to each other anyway.
Till slut kom dom fram till Cecilias grind.
Eventually, they arrived at Cecilia's gate.
Nu vill jag bli kysst, sa Cecilia Lind.
Now I want to be kissed, said Cecilia Lind.
Vet hut, Fredrik Åkare, skäms gamla karln!
Behave yourself, Fredrik Åkare, old man, have some shame!
Cecilia Lind är ju bara ett barn.
Remember that Cecilia Lind is still just a child.
Ren som en blomma, skygg som en hind.
She's pure as a flower, shy as a doe.
Jag fyller snart sjutton, sa Cecilia Lind.
I'll soon turn seventeen, said Cecilia Lind.
Och stjärnorna vandra och timmarna fly
The stars move and the hours fly by.
och Fredrik är gammal men månen är ny.
Fredrik may be old, but the moon is new.
Ja, Fredrik är gammal men kärlek är blind.
Yes, Fredrik may be old, but love is blind.
Åh, kyss mig igen, sa Cecilia Lind.
Oh, kiss me again, said Cecilia Lind.
Contributed by Caden K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
PK
on Deirdres samba
Woman !!!
Staffan
on Djurgårdsmässa (live)
Detta är inte en text av Cornelis utan av Nils Ferlin. Det gör den inte sämre.