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The artistic pursuits and lyrical genius of Kris Kristofferson
I have made no bones about it. I have declared Kris Kristofferson America’s greatest lyricist and will stand my ground. No less a songwriter than Leonard Cohen, author of Hallelujah, Bird on a Wire, and so many other masterpieces, recognized Kristofferson as his peer, his equal. Cohen, the Canadian-born Jew, was not wrong to accept Kristofferson the Texan into his company.
The late Cohen shared that Kristofferson once informed him he had pilfered part of the melody of Bird on a Wire from a country song. Then Kris went on to say that he wanted lyrics from the song on his tombstone.
Tom Taylor wrote about it in faroutmagazine.com on September 30 this year, after Kristofferson passed:
“Kris Kristofferson informed me that I had stolen part of the melody from another Nashville writer,” the late Cohen once recalled. “He also said that he’s putting the first couple of lines on his tombstone””and I’ll be hurt if he doesn’t.”
The lines Kristofferson referenced were these:
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Individual freedom and the pursuit thereof were driving forces for Kristofferson. Adding to Cohen’s legendary, “I have tried in my way to be free,” Kris wrote in perhaps his most famous song, Me and Bobby McGee this timeless sentiment: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
There can be no argument about Kristofferson’s impact on music. He produced number-one hits for Janis Joplin, Ray Price, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, and Sammi Smith.
Jessica Nicholson, writing for billboard.com eulogized Kristofferson:
Born Kristoffer Kristofferson in Brownsville, Texas in June 1936; his family soon moved to California. Kristofferson’s short stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly and soon after, he became a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford University in England. His life also included time as a Golden Gloves boxer, and an Army ranger who also flew helicopters (and famously once landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn in order to get Cash to listen to a demo tape), an A-list actor, a writer and a creator equally inspired by the works of William Blake as Bob Dylan. In the Army, Kristofferson rose to the rank of captain, but when he was commissioned to teach English at West Point, he abandoned that opportunity in order to head to Nashville to pursue songwriting.
To appreciate the lyrical genius of America’s songwriter, you have to do a deep dive into his songs. He wrote 108 of them. Despite mega-hits like Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through the Night, Sunday Morning Comin’ Down, For the Good Times, Why Me Lord, and One Day at a Time, many of his songs are not known or properly appreciated.
Here are some of my favorite lines from Kristofferson songs you probably never heard of:
Casey joins the hollow sound of silent people walking down The stairway to the subway in the shadows down below Following their footsteps through the neon-darkened corridors Of silent desperation, never speakin' to a soul The poison air he's breathin' has the dirty smell of dying 'Cause it's never seen the sunshine and it's never felt the rain But Casey minds the arrows and ignores the fatal echoes Of the clickin' of the turnstiles and the rattle of his chains ~from Casey's Last Ride
Did you ever see a down and outer waking up alone Without a blanket on to keep him from the dew When the water from the weeds has soaked the paper He's been puttin' in his shoes to keep the ground from comin' through And his future feels as empty as the pocket in his pants Because he's never seen a single dream come true That's the way that I've been feelin' since the day I started falling From the bottle to the bottom stool by stool Learnin' hard to live with losin' you ~from From the Bottle to the Bottom
He's a poet, he's a picker He's a prophet, he's a pusher He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home. ~from The Pilgrim, Chapter 33
Learning every bridge you cross Is burning down before you're off And running like the devil just in time Breakin' any ties before they bind you Taking any comfort you can find Running like you're running out of time Take it all, take it easy, 'till it's over Understanding When you're headin' for the border Lord You're bound to cross the line ~from Border Lord
Never's just the echo of forever Lonesome as the love that might have been Just let me go on loving and believing 'Till it's over Please don't tell me how the story ends ~from Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends
Eggheads cursin', rednecks cussin' Hippies for their hair Others laugh at straights who laugh at Freaks who laugh at squares Some folks hate the Whites Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan Most of us hate anything that We don't understand 'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on Prove they can be better than at any time they please Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me ~from Jesus Was a Capricorn
I have seen the morning burning golden on the mountain in the skies Aching with the feeling of the freedom of an eagle when she flies Turning on the world the way she smiled upon my soul as I lay dying Healing as the colors in the sunshine and the shadows of her eyes [Verse 2] Waking in the morning to the feeling of her fingers on my skin Wiping out the traces of the people and the places that I've been Teaching me that yesterday was something that I never thought of trying Talking of tomorrow and the money, love, and time we had to spend [Chorus] Loving her was easier than anything I'll ever do again ~from Loving Her Was Easier
Born in a Texas border town, Kristofferson moved to California with his family when he was young. He was a small-town kid in a big-time world, moving the movers, shaking with the shakers, rubbing shoulders with royalty, but he remembered where he came from, what it took to get there, and what it almost cost him.
I give you this song as perhaps his own way of saying, “Goodbye. I’m headin’ home.”
I come from just the other side of nowhere To this big time lonesome town They got a lot of ice and snow here Half as cold as all the people I've found Every way I try to go here seems to bring me down I've seen about enough to know where I belong I've got a mind to see the headlights shining On that old white line between my heart and home Sick of spendin' Sundays wishing they were Mondays Settin' in a park alone So give my best to anyone who's left who ever done me Any lovin' way but wrong Tell 'em that the pride of just the other side of nowhere's Goin' home Takin' nothin' back to show there For these dues I've paid But the soul I almost sold here And the body I've been givin' away Fadin' from the neon nighttime glow here Headin' for the light of day Just the other side of nowhere, goin' home I've got a mind to see the headlights shinin' On that old white line between my heart and home Sick of spendin' Sundays wishin' they were Mondays Settin' in a park alone So give my best to anyone who's left who ever done me Any lovin' way but wrong Tell them that the pride of just the other side of nowhere's Goin' home Just the other side on nowhere, goin' home Takin' nothin' back to show there For these dues I've paid But the soul I almost sold here And the body I've been givin' away Fadin' from the neon nighttime glow here Headin' for the light of day Just the other side of nowhere, goin' home Just the other side of nowhere, goin' home ~from Just the Other Side of Nowhere
If you wonder if Kristofferson ever encountered Jesus, watch this: