The Polar Music Prize

THE PRIZE COMMITTEE’S CITATION FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

The American rock singer Bruce Springsteen is awarded the 1997 Polar Music Prize for an outstanding career as singer and stage performer. His authority in rock music is unshakeable. For two decades now he has been one of the most colourful personalities at the very centre of the genre, and he is an uncompromising steward of the essential qualities of rock: it’s heavy beat and "groovy" sound - a harsh sometimes crude but at the same time spiritual sound ideal rooted in black rhythm and blues. In his lyrics he focuses on the little man’s winding path through life with a certain melancholy and profound compassion.

In a world of music where styles are fluctuting all the time, Bruce Springsteen stands with both feet firmly planted on the ground of Rock’n’Roll. Altough his records have sold in vast quantities, the live concert remains his natural medium. Bruce Springsteen, with his social pathos, is also a singer of the people, a modern "bard". He stands up straight and hits hard, but he does so with discretion and not without tenderness.

STOCKHOLM 01-15-97/HA

Here's the words that Bruce addressed to Polar Music Banquet's attendants:

"Thank you..... I'd like to thank Your Majesty, Princess Christina, Princess Lilian, Your excellency Stick Anderson, members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, members of the Polar Music Prize Committee for honouring my music tonight with this award...

I spend additional source of joy to receive this award alongside Mr. Erikson: His coral music, particularly the (chamber coral) seems to be filled with the intensity and the soul of his country....

And ... with my music I've also tried to give people a sense of the country where I come from: its physicality, its landscape, its people, (its blasted things and its corsets). When I started out I wasn't so concerned about instantaneous success or biggest hits as I was with making music that would find its way in people's daily lives.I would become a part of them and I wanted to illuminate those lives to provide companionship before i could, and provide a tale for for making the sense of the world we were living, a map made from whatever i've gained from my own experience, something that I could pass on and share.

I wanted to find my audience, my spiritual community, my blood brothers and sisters, somebody i could talk to, sharin my concerns and my obsessions.... (.....incompr....) I expected to find my audience not only in my hometown but thousands miles away across oceans, languages barriers, cultural differences and for a long time out here in Sweden. That's why I'm here tonight, to thank that audience, for it's the audience that gives my work its deepest meaning; Somewwhere in a search for the things tath we share and we have in common ther's a glimpse of a perfect world whether it's in the everyday's heroism of the people that I sung about for 25 years, or in the impossible beauty of the voices of Mr. Erikson coral work there's a sense of heartplace, a more humain community, of deeper love and understanding of one-another...... And it's in the audience that he finds his work fullfilment.

I've been received very warmly and you make me feel aat home here in Sweden since 1975. My only regret for performances is in 1985 when (attendents) of my concert destroyeds foundations of Gothenberg Stadium but supposedly the

entire audience danced to a unique and exuberanth version of Twist 'n' shout ...... we had a good time doin'it but I assure you the damages was mostly unintentionals and I was initially concerned that the repairs bill might be taken out of my Polar Prize money but.. Mr. Andrson assrures me that it wouldn't be the case!!! <many laughters>

I had never received an award for my (body) work for I feel a bit of a youngster: Thank you for your generosity and your graciousness; I promised to continue to prxvide you with some fun, entertaiment, something to dance to, to make love to your baby too.... and provide little company on your trips down on Thunder Rd.

SO.... I accept this award as a pay-back for job well done in this, the early part of my career <Bruce and attendants laughs> hope to follow Mr.Erikson footsteps....."

(Thats all Folks...Some word was was very hard to completly understand so I placed between brackets (..)

posted by: Giovanni Vecchio <gvecchio@mbox.medianet.pv.it>