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".
Mördar-Anders
Cornelis Vreeswijk Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mördar-Anders det är jag, det är jag.
Mördar-Anders det är jag.
Jag skall halshuggas idag
Enligt Svea rikes lag, ta mej fan!
Jag har mördat fyra män, fyra män.
Jag har mördat fyra män, fyra män.
Är dom ej I himmelen
Lär jag träffa dom igen, ta mej fan!
Folket samlats har I ring, uti ring.
Folket samlats har I ring, uti ring.
Folket samlats har I ring
Att se blodet flyta kring,
Men det gör mig ingenting, ta mej fan!
Prästen står här nedanför, nedanför.
Prästen står här nedanför, nedanför.
Prästen står här nedanför,
Lockar med sin änglalkör,
Men jag vet nog vad jag gör, ta mej fan!
Liten Karin hon är här, hon är här.
Liten Karin hon är här, hon är här.
Liten Karin hon är här,
Hon som var min hjärtans kär.
Kan do se så stolt hon är, ta mej fan!
Där står bödeln med sin huva så röd.
Där står bödeln med sin huva så röd.
Med sitt svärd och huva röd
Han ska bli min bleka död
För det är hans levebröd, ta mej fan!
Ni som väntar på mitt skrik, på mitt skrik.
Ni som väntar på mitt skrik, på mitt skrik.
Ni som väntar på mitt skrik
Ska få se ett vackert lik.
Jag gör allt för min publik, ta mej fan!
Detta är min avskedslåt, avskedslåt.
Detta är min avskedslåt, avskedslåt.
Detta är min avskedslåt,
Snart blir bödelns yxa våt.
Ingenting att göra åt, ta mej fan!
The song "Mördar-Anders" by Cornelis Vreeswijk is a dark, sarcastic song sung from the perspective of a murderer named Anders, who is about to be executed. The chorus repeats the phrase, "Mördar-Anders det är jag," which means "murderer Anders, that's me." Anders seems to almost boast about his crime and his impending execution, saying that he's going to be beheaded today according to the laws of the Swedish kingdom, and that "they can damn well take him."
The verses use repetition to showcase the nonchalance with which Anders seems to approach his death. When he's asked if he's murdered four men, he simply repeats the phrase, "Jag har mördat fyra män" ("I have murdered four men") multiple times, even suggesting that if they're not in heaven he'll meet them again. Anders also seems to take pleasure in the attention he's receiving, as he notes that the people have gathered to watch him die, even though it doesn't bother him. He's also confident in his decision to resist the priest's attempts to convert him, instead choosing to focus on his love interest, Karin, who is present at the execution and appears proud of Anders' bravery.
Overall, the song seems to be criticizing the death penalty, and perhaps society's fascination with capital punishment and the criminals who receive it. The repetition of certain phrases and the sarcastic tone of the lyrics create a dark humor that satirizes the morbid spectacle of an execution.
Line by Line Meaning
Mördar-Anders det är jag, det är jag.
The singer declares that he is Mördar-Anders.
Jag skall halshuggas idag
Enligt Svea rikes lag, ta mej fan!
The singer informs that he is going to be executed by beheading according to the law of Svea Rike.
Jag har mördat fyra män, fyra män.
Är dom ej I himmelen
Lär jag träffa dom igen, ta mej fan!
The singer confesses to killing four men and declares that if they are not in heaven, he will meet them again.
Folket samlats har I ring, uti ring.
Att se blodet flyta kring,
Men det gör mig ingenting, ta mej fan!
The artist remarks that people have gathered in a ring to see him executed and that he does not care if his blood flows around.
Prästen står här nedanför, nedanför.
Lockar med sin änglalkör,
Men jag vet nog vad jag gör, ta mej fan!
The artist says that the priest is standing below and trying to lure him to heaven with angels but he knows what he is doing.
Liten Karin hon är här, hon är här.
Hon som var min hjärtans kär.
Kan do se så stolt hon är, ta mej fan!
The singer mentions that his beloved Karin is present and expresses how proud she looks.
Där står bödeln med sin huva så röd.
Med sitt svärd och huva röd
Han ska bli min bleka död
För det är hans levebröd, ta mej fan!
The singer describes the executioner with his red hood and sword and declares that he will be the singer's pale death because that's how he earns his living.
Ni som väntar på mitt skrik, på mitt skrik.
Ni som väntar på mitt skrik
Ska få se ett vackert lik.
Jag gör allt för min publik, ta mej fan!
The artist addresses the crowd waiting for him to scream and says that they will see a beautiful corpse and he is doing everything for his audience.
Detta är min avskedslåt.
Snart blir bödelns yxa våt.
Ingenting att göra åt, ta mej fan!
The artist declares that this is his farewell song and that the executioner's axe will soon become wet with his blood and there is nothing he can do about it.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: TRADITIONAL, BOERGE GRANQVIST, CORNELIS VREESWIJK, PD TRADITIONAL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@mattsnordqvist9059
Han var kung!!!
@DenicePolice
Fan vad bra denna låt är. Galet.
@jojomane7023
Vreeswijk var som Hemingway när det kom till att skriva.
@arildholtet27
Han var bare en ting. FANTASTISK.
@dawnrapier
Cornelis ihop med Ted Gärdestad är nog 2 av Sveriges bästa låtskrivare/artister i den moderna tide räkningen IMO.
@danielfreij9405
Geni 😊
@lars-eriklarsson8067
Texten är fan bra alltså
@tofattofly1
Han visste sanningen om anders hela tiden:P
@zaaritha
Bra--som allt han spelade in!
@Sluurfi
Samma här!