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".
Grimasch om morgonen
Cornelis Vreeswijk Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Men det kan do inte höra
Do ligger utan blus och kjol
Med läpparna mot mitt öra
”Tala nu allvar” ber do bestämt
”Du skrattar visor och sjunger skämt
Do kan men vill inte göra
En sång om lyckan den sköra”
Nu stiger sol och nu faller dagg
För fattigt folk och för rika
Men lyckan har en förgiftad tagg
Som man bör noga undvika
Hon stannar gärna I några dar
Men när do vill hålla henne kvar
Blir hennes ögon iskalla
Och do blir bitter som galla
Så faller daggen för utan ljud
Och gräs och blader blir våta
Och varje morgon står solen brud
Fast inga brudpsalmer låta
Ann-Katarin, do ska veta att
Det finns en lycka som dör av skratt
När den dig smeka som natten
Och den är stilla som vatten
Stig upp you're sängen Ann-Katarin
Och lyssna på något viktigt
Det finns ett särskilt slags ädelt vin
Som man bör njuta försiktigt
För om man dricker det utan sans
Förlorar det sin forna glans
Och do får kvar en tom flaska
Och bittra tårar och aska
The lyrics of the song Grimasch om morgonen by Cornelis Vreeswijk are about the transience of happiness and the importance of cherishing it when it is present. The first verse describes the sunrise and the fact that the singer's lover is lying next to them, asking them to speak seriously and write a song about the fragility of happiness. The second verse describes how happiness is like a poisoned thorn, which can be tempting to grasp onto but ultimately brings bitterness. The final verse encourages Ann-Katarin to listen to something important – the message that there is a special kind of happiness that must be savored gently, or else it will lose its luster and leave only emptiness and sorrow behind.
The language of the song is poetic and metaphorical, using images of the sun, dews, grass, and wine to convey the idea of fleeting happiness. The lyrics suggest that happiness cannot be forced or held onto forever, but that it is worth celebrating and enjoying while it lasts.
One interesting fact about the song is that it was written and originally performed in Swedish by Cornelis Vreeswijk, a Dutch-Swedish troubadour who was known for his satirical songs and controversial political views. Another interesting fact is that the song has been covered by many other artists in different languages and styles, including French singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki and Finnish jazz vocalist Timo Lassy. The chords for Grimasch om morgonen can be found on guitar tab websites and are relatively simple, consisting of common open chords like G, C, and D.
Line by Line Meaning
Nu faller dagg och nu stiger sol
The day is starting, the sun rises and the dew evaporates.
Men det kan do inte höra
You're not aware of it.
Do ligger utan blus och kjol
You're undressed.
Med läpparna mot mitt öra
Whispering in my ear.
”Tala nu allvar” ber do bestämt
You demand that I speak seriously.
”Du skrattar visor och sjunger skämt
You accuse me of singing happy songs and making jokes.
Do kan men vill inte göra
You have the ability, but not the desire.
En sång om lyckan den sköra”
You don't want to sing about fragile happiness.
Nu stiger sol och nu faller dagg
The sun rises and the dew falls.
För fattigt folk och för rika
It happens to everyone, irrespective of wealth.
Men lyckan har en förgiftad tagg
Happiness can be fleeting and deceptive.
Som man bör noga undvika
One should be cautious of it.
Hon stannar gärna I några dar
It may last a few days.
Men när do vill hålla henne kvar
When you try to hold onto it forever,
Blir hennes ögon iskalla
Happiness turns cold.
Och do blir bitter som galla
And you become bitter.
Så faller daggen för utan ljud
The dew falls silently.
Och gräs och blader blir våta
Wetting the grass and leaves.
Och varje morgon står solen brud
Every morning is a new beginning.
Fast inga brudpsalmer låta
Without the sound of bells and hymns.
Ann-Katarin, do ska veta att
You should know, Ann-Katarin,
Det finns en lycka som dör av skratt
A happiness that dies from laughter,
När den dig smeka som natten
Which caresses you like the night,
Och den är stilla som vatten
And is as still as water.
Stig upp you're sängen Ann-Katarin
Get up from your bed, Ann-Katarin,
Och lyssna på något viktigt
And listen to me carefully.
Det finns ett särskilt slags ädelt vin
There is a special and precious wine,
Som man bör njuta försiktigt
That should be enjoyed cautiously,
För om man dricker det utan sans
Because, if you lose your senses while drinking,
Förlorar det sin forna glans
Its former glory is lost,
Och do får kvar en tom flaska
And all that remains is an empty bottle,
Och bittra tårar och aska
And bitter tears and ashes.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CORNELIS VREESWIJK, YNGVE KRISTIANSEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@hakannilsson9289
Älskar den!!!.❤️❤️❤️
@Bern446
Poetiskt mästerverk.
@andersmberg9183
En av mina favoriter från Cornelis visskatt.....
@kristinvandertick7591
En klar favoritt♥️
@mattias969
Gud vad det här tar mig tillbaka till när jag var 20 o hade gjort slut med min första allvarliga flickvän hahaha så lite det spelar roll med tiden
@harrys635
In Holland, called Cornelis this number Marjolijn..very nice song.
@matsjonsson7241
Språket, min broder!
@dewniper
@Mats Jönsson ?
@oloftornkvist2613
Kärlek, ensamhet. Vi är alla människor. Dude...
@fappe908
Cornelis ❤️