Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 02/06/2001
Kris Kristofferson was approaching his mid-thirties and had been kicking around Nashville for several years when he belatedly became an overnight success in 1969-1970. The impetus was
"Me and Bobby McGee," which he co-wrote with
Fred Foster, who ran
Monument Records.
Roger Miller cut the song, and his recording peaked in the
country Top 20 in August 1969. By that time,
Kristofferson had performed at
the Newport Folk Festival at the behest of
Johnny Cash, and
Foster decided to sign him to
Monument as a recording artist. Before this debut album was released in 1970,
Ray Stevens had scored a
pop and
country chart entry with
Kristofferson's
"Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down."
On the evidence of his first collection of songs,
Kristofferson was ahead of his
country music peers in realizing that, despite Nashville's conservative political tilt, there was a natural affinity between the
country archetype of a hard-drinking, romantically independent loner and the
rock & roll archetype of a drug-taking, romantically free hippie. (Of course, lots of
rock musicians, especially in Los Angeles, had already noticed this similarity, and formed bands like
Poco and
the Flying Burrito Brothers to exploit it.) He opened the album with what sounded like an answer to the criticisms of
the Rolling Stones in the wake of
Altamont.
"Blame It on the Stones" contrasted various conservative stereotypes, starting with "Mr. Marvin Middle Class," with the supposedly evil
rock group, its chorus a parody of
"Bringing in the Sheaves." Needless to say, that was not a typical way to open a
country album in 1970 (or any other time), but
Kristofferson quickly followed with the somewhat more reverent
"To Beat the Devil," which he dedicated in a spoken introduction to
Johnny Cash and
June Carter, and in which he established a persona he would maintain through much of the album, the character of a poor songwriter struggling against despair.
"Me and Bobby McGee," a classic on-the-road song, was next, with
Kristofferson, despite the
country grammar, displaying his background as an English teacher in its chorus, "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose/Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free." Then came
"The Best of All Possible Worlds," which used a reference to
Voltaire to reflect wryly on the viewpoint of a drunken vagrant. (You could see what attracted
Roger Miller to
Kristofferson in a song like this, which clearly was influenced by
Miller's
"King of the Road," though
Kristofferson's treatment of the subject was grittier.) Of course, the ultimate example of the subject was the album-closing
"Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," which was basically a first-person description of a hangover. The romantic side of the hard-living drifter character was glimpsed in the album's two tenderest statements,
"Help Me Make It Through the Night" and
"For the Good Times," both of which were pleas by the narrator to sleep with the object of his affection.
A sleeve note suggested that
Kristofferson had been reluctant to record, but while he didn't have much range as a singer, he brought a conviction to his vocals and a complete understanding of the nuances of the lyrics. The songs were so personal that they seemed to demand a personal interpretation. Nashville, as it turned out, didn't have much use for countercultural songs like
"Blame It on the Stones" and
"The Law Is for Protection of the People" (which had some choice words for the police), but the
country music community could recognize a good love song with an erotic edge that was on the cusp of the era's changing mores, and
Ray Price quickly cut
"For the Good Times," which topped the
country charts. Then,
Johnny Cash covered
"Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" for a number one
country hit, leading to its winning the Country Music Association's Song of the Year award for 1970, and
Sammi Smith gave a twist to
"Help Me Make It Through the Night" by recording it as a woman's song for yet another
country number one. The finishing touch to
Kristofferson's sudden renown was
Janis Joplin's cover of
"Me and Bobby McGee," released shortly after her death, which topped the
pop charts.
When it was released in 1970,
Kristofferson did not reach the charts. By the following year, however, its creator was on his way to becoming a major star, and after his second album,
The Silver Tongued Devil and I, broke into the
pop charts in July 1971,
Monument re-titled the first album
Me and Bobby McGee and reissued it. This time around, it made the
pop and
country charts and went gold. (On February 6, 2001,
Monument/
Legacy reissued
Kristofferson as part of its American Milestones series. Featuring 24-bit remastering, the CD added four previously unreleased tracks from the same sessions that produced the album, among them an early version of
"Come Sundown," later recorded for a Top Ten
country hit by
Bobby Bare and re-cut by
Kristofferson himself for his
Shake Hands With the Devil album in 1979.)
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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