These are roads both literal and metaphorical that Kristofferson traveled well. This is from his debut album Kristofferson released in 1970 and it brings out all the poignancy. Now I’m a fan of Miller’s but given that I’ve only limited myself to three shots, I think in this instance I’ll go with Kristofferson’s version. Typically when I do a One Song/Three Versions post, I start with the very first one recorded which in this case was Roger Miller. Hell, I thought it was just about a couple of drifters.) In discussing the song, Kristofferson explained that he was trying to convey the despair of the last scene of Federico Fellini’s La Strada in which a broken, war-torn, inebriated Anthony Quinn stares up from the beach at the night’s stars.” (There’s your Rhodes scholar shit right there. The titular character was named for a studio secretary, Barbara “Bobbie” McKee, but Kristofferson had misheard her surname. What am I doing here?)Īs to the song “Me and Bobby McGee,” “suggestion for the title was a cordial challenge from producer and Monument Records founder Fred Foster to Kristofferson. In my own head, I’d still be saying, “I’m the fucking janitor. Legend has it that he “cleaned up after Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde sessions but eventually caught Johnny Cash’s ear through his wife June.” (Imagine being the janitor for these guys with them probably completely ignoring you and then years later being in a movie with Barbra Streisand. The specific place he wound up sweeping floors was at Columbia Studios in Nashville. Now how does one go from being a Rhodes scholar to a janitor? Well, in Kris’ case, apparently after a lot of drifting around, soul-searching, a stint in the military, and flying helicopters around oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. How many of us can make that exact claim? Kristofferson is an interesting character in that he is not only a very successful songwriter, but he was also a Rhodes scholar and janitor. I got the idea for this post when I read an interview with Kris Kristofferson. Billboard ranked Joplin’s version as the No. Jerry Lee Lewis also released a version reaching number 1 on the country charts in 1971. 1 single in U.S. chart history after “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding. singles chart in 1971, making the song the second posthumously released No. (Foster heard someone say what sounded like “Me and Bobby McGee” and called Kristofferson with the bare bones of an idea for a song.)Ī posthumously released version by Janis Joplin topped the U.S. Fred Foster shares the writing credit, as Kristofferson intended. Wikipedia: “‘Me and Bobby McGee” is a song written by American singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson and originally performed by Roger Miller.
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