Cornelis Vreeswijk (1937 - 1987) was a singer-songwriter who was born in the Netherlands but moved to Sweden with his parents in 1949, at the age of twelve. He trained as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist but became instead a musician whose idiosyncratic humor and social engagement are still gaining him new fans seventeen years after his early death.
A new voice in 1964
Vreeswijk's first album, "Ballader och oförskämdheter" ("Ballads and Insults", 1964), was a hit which immediately gained him a large following among the emerging radical student generation. 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.
Early career: songs and controversy
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 "Balladen om Fredrik Åkare", a tribute to his friend and fellow singer Fred Åkerström, "Sportiga Marie" ("Sporting 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 King Herod in the Swedish version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. 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.
Middle career: new fields and new audiences
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. His 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 Fatume", 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.
Late career: rising fame
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 a national cemetery in Stockholm.
Nationality and style
Vreeswijk was bilingual in Dutch and Swedish. In the early seventies he attempted to build a career in the Netherlands as well as Sweden, and he had a hit with the Dutch version of his song "Veronica", but he never achieved the fame he enjoyed in Sweden. 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."
References
The lists below are provided courtesy of Cornelis Vreeswijksällskapet, the Swedish Cornelis Vreeswijk society. The popularity of Cornelis Vreeswijk's songs in Sweden seems to be still on the rise, and many albums anthologizing his own recordings of them have been released since his death. These are not shown in the discography below, nor are the cover versions of his songs. The bibliography, on the other hand, does contain all Swedish publications by and about Cornelis Vreeeswijk (exclusively) to date.
Swedish Discography
1964-Ballader och oförskämdheter
1965-Visor och oförskämdheter
1965-Ballader och Grimascher
1966-Grimascher och telegram
1968-Tio vackra visor och personliga person
1969-Cornelis sjunger Taube
1970-Poem,ballader och lite blues
1971-Spring mot Ulla, spring! Cornelis sjunger Bellman
1972-Cornelis live!
1972-Visor, svarta och röda
1973-Istället för vykort
1973-Linnéas fina visor
1974-Getinghonung
1976-Narrgnistor och transkriptioner
1977-Movitz! Movitz!
1978-Cornelis sjunger Victor Jara
1978-Narrgnistor 2, En halv böj blues och andra ballader
1978-Felicias svenska suite
1979-Vildhallon
1979-Cornelis-Live. Montmartre-Köpenhamn Vol 1
1979-Cornelis-Live. Montmartre-Köpenhamn Vol 2
1979-Cornelis-Live. Montmartre-Köpenhamn
1979-Jazz incorporated
1980-Bananer-bland annat
1980-En spjutkastares visor
1981-"Alla har vi varit små" Cornelis sjunger Povel/1
1981-"The gräsänkling blues" Cornelis sjunger Povel/2
1981-Turistens klagan
1981-Hommager och Pamfletter
1981-Cornelis sjunger Povel
1985-Cornelis Bästa
1985-Mannen som älskade träd
1986-I elfte timmen
1987-Till Fatumeh, rapport från de osaligas ängder
Swedish Bibliography
Works by Cornelis Vreeeswijk
En handfull gräs, 1970.
I stället för vykort, 1974. ISBN 91-1-731331-7
Felicias svenska suite, 1978. ISBN 82-03-09752-9
Till Fatumeh, 1987. ISBN 91-7608-384-5
Till Fatumeh (paperback), 1989. ISBN 91-7642-471-5
Sånger, ed. Jan-Erik Vold, 1988. ISBN 91-7608-399-3
Dikter, ed. Jan-Erik Vold, 1989. ISBN 91-7608-439-6
Osjungna sånger, 1990. ISBN 91-7608-488-4
Skrifter, ed. Jan-Erik Vold, 2000:
- I. Samlade sånger. ISBN 91-7324-770-7
- II. Enskilda sånger. ISBN 91-7324-770-7
- III. Dikter Prosa Tolkningar. ISBN 91-7324-771-5
Works about Cornelis Vreeeswijk
Rolf Fridholm, Polarn Cornelis, 1989. ISBN 91-7029-016-4
Klas Widén, Cornelis Vreeswijk: En förteckning över hans produktion med kort biografi, 1991.
Ulf Carlsson, Cornelis Vreeswijk: Artist-vispoet-lyriker, 1996.ISBN 91-564-1025-5
Rolf Fridholm, Medborgare! En vänbok om Cornelis, 1996. ISBN 91-88144-25-9
Oscar Hedlund, Scener ur en äventyrares liv, 2000. ISBN 91-34-51809-6