The Ivor Novello Awards, an annual ceremony honoring songwriters and composers, were held last night in London. Bruce Springsteen was the recipient of an Academy fellowship, the first non-British person to receive the honor. The War On Drugs recorded some Springsteen covers for the occasion, and Paul McCartney was on hand to present the Boss with his award after some light roasting.

“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,” Macca cracked. “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.” After accepting the award, Springsteen did a solo acoustic version of “Thunder Road.”

Lana Del Rey was also honored at the Ivors. She gave a speech touching on relationship violence. And, while speaking to reporters, she revealed that her Honeymoon track “24” was written for the James Bond film Spectre but was rejected in favor of Sam Smith’s “Writing’s On The Wall.” (Radiohead’s “Spectre” was also famously passed over as the movie’s theme.) LDR said she’s still hoping to record a Bond theme at some point: “How has that not happened yet?”

Here’s McCartney’s full speech introducing Springsteen, as transcribed by the NME:

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.

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 [Shevell] go out to their place in New Jersey and him and Patti [Scialfa] 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.

And here’s footage of McCartney, Springsteen, and Del Rey from throughout the night:

@bbcnews "But Sam, you did a wonderful job… I'm just kidding!" #LanaDelRey #Lana #SamSmith #Spectre #Bond  #007 #JamesBond #FilmMusic #Music #Ivor #IvorNovello #IvorAwards #BBCNews ♬ original sound – BBC News

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