Aan Bruce Springsteen werd een tijd geleden de Engelse Fellow of the Ivors toegekend.
Na de bekendmaking zei hij al die onderscheiding op prijs te stellen, maar hij kwam ook daadwerkelijk naar Londen om die onderscheiding op donderdag 23 mei jl. in ontvangst te nemen. Misschien was dat doordat hij de eerste niet-Brit is die de eer te beurt valt.
De speech bij de uitreiking werd gehouden door Paul McCartney, die ook al goede maatjes met Springsteen is.
Zoals gebruikelijk was die speech ironisch, zodat er sprke was van het nogal veel gebruikte begrip ‘roast’.
McCartney hield het uiteraard leuk en zei het volgende: ‘Springsteen is a Dutch name. Did you know that? In Dutch it means man in charge. So he’s the man in charge. So unlike Bruce’s concerts, I’m gonna keep this brief. I said to him, ‘I blame you man, we used to play an hour, an hour and a half. The Beatles used to play a half hour.’ He starts doing one and we’re all playing three hours now. Anyway I’ll get on with it.
So er I can’t think of a more fitting person to be the first international songwriter fellowship except maybe Bob Dylan, or Paul Simon, or Billy Joel, or Beyoncé, or Taylor Swift. The list goes on. Just kidding Bruce. Anyway I was wondering how Bruce would fit into The Beatles. When it comes to talent, he was definitely in the Top Five.
Anyway as I say he is a mate and me and my wife Nancy go out to their place in New Jersey and him and Patti are just the best hosts. I mean they really look after you, you know? When you go there it’s like in the winter, he’s got a great big fire going in the fire pit so we sit outside and drink and chat about things.
He is a fantastic guy, he’s really nice guy and he showed up for me at Glastonbury and he promised to do that about three years before then COVID hit. And I thought, ‘Well he’s never gonna show up’ and then he shows up. He’s a lovely boy, he’s known as being the American working man you know? But he admits, he’s never worked a day in his life. It’s true.
So he’s a lovely, lovely boy. You know what, it’s great for me to be back here because I came here in the sixties. I know I don’t look that old. So it’s a great pleasure for me to present this to Bruce and he is a fellow.’
Springsteen zelf sprak natuurlijk ook en inderdaad, ook dat duurde even:
“Back in 1975, I went on the long flight from New Jersey to the UK, with two different guys who had never been on an aeroplane. The aeroplane food was not so great, and my first thought when we landed at Heathrow was, ‘Where’s all the cheeseburgers?’… The cheeseburgers had either been hidden or replaced by something called fish and chips. I knew what a fish was, but I didn’t know what a chip was. It was a little disconcerting.
“Our next stop was the Hammersmith Odeon, where I was greeted by a huge sign announcing: ‘London is finally ready for Bruce Springsteen’. And all I thought was, ‘If London isn’t ready for a cheeseburger, they may not be ready for me.’
“Me and my 25-year-old American cousins, who were visiting the land of the musical giants, The Beatles, The Stones, The Animals. They all met us, took us to school, told us their deep appreciation of our own American roots and music. Taught us the right way to dress and wear our hair. For a young New Jersey rocker, you came to Mecca. We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Youth, loud, hipness, girls. And while I was stone-cold born in the USA, at 16 I desperately yearned to be British. I had a pretty good fake British accent – that’s what the checkout girls at the local supermarket thought.
“But I have had a lot of wonderful history here. Next year is going to mark 50 years that I’ve been coming here to entertain you and win your trust and confidence, I hope. A lot of those fans have been with me since that first night at Hammersmith, all the way to those great gigs we did in Hyde Park last summer. Their depth of knowledge of my work and their dedication constantly keeps me invested here. It keeps me coming back to these shores so I can deal more faithfully with my audience’s joys and their concerns.
I want to be at the top of my game. Thanks for the inspiration that I see from so many musicians and writers that hail from the UK. I’ve met many folks over the last 50 years, who work at all levels at Sony Music, one thing they all have in common is the dedication and respect that they’ve shown me, my songs and my work. To each and everybody that saw me, I mean, I sold all my music and they still treat it like it’s mine.
To be the first international artist to be granted this Fellowship – especially as an American, who I always suspect the British to be suspicious of our strange ways – it makes today a meaningful experience to me.
As we flew towards the UK in 1975, I was wondering, ‘What do I have that I could conceivably give back to those people who gave me so much?’ And the answer is, everything I’ve got.
We just came out of playing Sunderland last night… hellacious weather. A driving rainstorm, wind blowing, but standing in front of me in the rain, I realised ‘These are my people’. Some of them were young, some of them were children, and some of them weren’t. Many wore lines on their faces of life, hard-weather and well-lived. Those are my people here in the UK, and I love them.
They’re the people I’ve written for and about, and that I can still find standing in front of me – as the clock strikes 74, that remains one of the greatest privileges and honours of my life as a musician. I want to thank you for taking my music into your hearts and into your souls. I want to thank you for including me in the challenging and beautiful cultural life of the UK.
Once it was only a dream I had. Today it’s real. I want to thank you for looking after each other… I guess London is finally ready for cheeseburgers.’