My friend has 3 manuscripts to sell (The Unofficial Cornelis Vreeswijk thread)

roni

roni

I didn't have the impression, there was anything to highjack before Ponder and Erik opened my mind for foreign musicians.

So: Who's the coolest Danish singer/songwriter? I demand to know! Goddamit!!
 
Pogue Mahone

Pogue Mahone

Officials say drugs may have played a part
Lars Ulrich is clearly the most important musician to EVER come out of Denmark -- and Metallica sucks, so there you have it...
 
d gray

d gray

tried to do his best but could not
Founding member
roni said:
I didn't have the impression, there was anything to highjack before Ponder and Erik opened my mind for foreign musicians.
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well, i didn't want to name names...:DD

btw isn't "danish singer/songwriter" and "cool" an oxymoron?
 
Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
roni said:
Maybe Eric feels like telling a bit about his musical hero?
What is it with this guy, Eric?
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OK Roni, though I guess Bukfan already said what needed to be said.
The thing about Vreeswijk is that he is a sort of blend between the blues and swedish folk songs. An acquired taste, yes, some not knowing Swedish folk music might even say weird. :wb:

Another thing: His bio sort of reminds me of Lennon or Marley, a sensitive child with a tough childhood, with talent, growing up fearless and vulnerable because of it. He also had that ability to create simple and strong melodies AND lyrics. Not many can do both like that. Only thing: He never found his Ono to take care og his finances or a Lynda B. to feed him health food and wash his socks.

His lyrics are hard to characterize in English. They were always honest, no nonsense and true.

Roni: By the way, the song you picked out shows good taste. Its a cover version of a famous Swedish poet/song writer from the 16 century: Carl Michael Bellman. He could also write melodies AND lyrics. I quote:

On the surface, Bellman's songs centre to a large extent around themes like the joy of inebriation and the pursuit of sexual pleasure. Against this backdrop, however, he manages to elucidate the tender and fleeting themes of love, death, and the elusive qualities of the "present", the here-and-now, in a unique and moving manner.
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But i digress.

Try out this song for an original Vreeswijk. Its about a middle aged man falling in love with a 17-yearold girl:
Balladen om Fredrik Ã…kare

Oh and he DID speak dutch, and put out some successful records there. Maybe you can understand some dutch?:

Veronika

Another favorite is this one:
Cool Water - På Den Gyldene Freden

Oh, and Denmarks best/weirdest singer/song writer is definitely

C.V. Jørgensen: På Gyngende Grund

manuscripts?
Hi Jack?
Isn't life just one long digression anyway?
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
roni said:
hey mjp!
Being the guy who runs this place doesn't entitle You to highjack this thread either!

So, who's the coolest singer/songwriter in Denmark?
Anybody? Bukfan?
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I would say Kim Larsen. He's very popular despite his lyrics not always being mainstream. He's know as "The Danish national bard". Him and his rock band "Gasolin'" and their 10 albums were extremely popular in the 70's. Then he went solo and still continue giving concerts and releasing albums to this day.
Many of his lyrics and personal opinions are very anti-establishment. A quote from Wikipedia:

"Larsen has many times voiced his opposition to the established society and instead advocated the right to be different from the mainstream: The album and movie Midt om natten revolves around this subject as does the album 231045-0637. The title for this last album is Kim Larsens social security number which is strictly personal. Larsen was against the big database of every citizen, implied by this title.
As a heavy smoker, he paid in August 2008 an advertising campaign which showed the text "Tillykke med rygeforbudet - Gesundheit macht frei !!!". The first sentence means "Congratulations on the smoking ban" in Danish, the second sentence means "health makes free" in German. Whilst smoking bans are allegedly not made to protect smokers, but non-smokers, Kim Larsen constructed a connection between smoking bans and such Nazi phrases as Arbeit macht frei."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Larsen

You can no doubt find many of his songs on Youtube, but you miss a lot when you don't speak the language. However, this video here of the song "Midt Om Natten" ("In The Middle Of The Night"), one of his most popular songs, shows what he's singing about by using clips from the Kim Larsen movie of the same name, "Midt om natten" ("In The Middle Of The Night"). It's about how the police turned up in the middle of the night to remove a bunch of hippie-squatters from the area they had occupied. It clearly has parallels to Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen which have been a hippie-squatter area since 1971 and which has often been in danger of being closed down by the authorities. The tune is very "catchy" and I've translated the lyrics as best I could so you know what he's singing about:

The cops came before we expected them
in the middle of the night
So, me and my baby were at it again
in the middle of the night
They threw tear gas through the windows
So, that the tears rolled down into the living rooms
Oh yes
in the middle of the night
The next thing that happened, I dare not think about
in the middle of the night
a guy we called "Spacey" went right into the blue
in the middle of the night
He hit the street from the fourth floor
it wasn't our fault, he was just raving mad
said the cops
in the middle of the night
in the middle of the night
they let us out when it was about three o'clock
in the middle of the night
they said go on home, but we asked, where's that
in the middle of the night
Now, I'm looking forward to becoming an old man
then I'll probably get a room with electricity and water
and the cops will hardly visit me
again
in the middle of the night
in the middle of the night.
in the middle of the night.
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[This video is unavailable.]

Kim Larsen "Midt Om Natten" album cover (1983), and a recent photo of him:

Kim_Larsen_-_Midt_om_natten-2.jpg
KimLarsen-1-2.jpg
 
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Black Swan

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!
well, that's a flawless documentation. :)
But was not allowed to watch the video in good old Canada.
This one works.
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
That's too bad, Black Swan! The one you posted is a much later live version, which is still fine. The one I posted showed clips from the movie which portrays what's going on in the song, but I guess my translation of the text is enough to let you know what it's about.

I found some of Kim Larsen's songs on Youtube where he sings them in English. Here's a nice little love song he made back in the 70's with his band, "Gasolin'":

[This video is unavailable.]
 
carla

carla

Hi MJ,
I'm doing well actually. How's the life as a loser working for ya? (je!) did i fracture my ESL on that one?
Still waiting for one of your boyz to put together some money to buy a manuscript from Alan.
It's incredible! this blog should be the best tool to find a freak that can afford $1500 for a page of your hero!
Anyway, saw the gatsby movie and it sucks. This is a good point to start a new tread, what was bukowski's words for american literature?
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Carla, god bless you!

Alan hasn't sold his manuscripts because his asking price is too high. The high side for manuscripts is closer to $500. And even if his prices were not too high, no one will ever buy them without seeing them first. I thought we went over that already? Are you becoming forgetful due to excessive amyl nitrite use? I warned you to lay off that shit.

I'm glad you're okay and you haven't lost any of that third world spunk that we love you for. Send our love to Alan.
 
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