Posted on 09/30/2024 3:32:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Within four months of her tragic death from a heroin overdose, Janis Joplin became the second artist to score a posthumous US number one hit with the rollicking country blues rocker ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. It was her only chart topper, but gained her the wider recognition that her unique take on the blues and charismatically soulful vocals had always warranted.
Starting off as a gently swaying country number with Joplin’s prominent East-Texan accent its most distinctive feature, the singer’s recording of the number builds to a blues-rock crescendo that brings her trademark, deep-throated rasp to the fore. Behind her, Joplin’s band swing harder than a deadbeat boxer, with Richard Bell on piano and John Till on lead guitar ramping up the jam at just the right moment in Joplin’s slipstream.
Joplin’s version of ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, which was also included on her landmark album Pearl, may be the definitive one. But the track had already been recorded by three other artists the time she got to it. Honky-tonk country singer Roger Miller was the first to release it as a single in 1969, before Canadian Gordon Lightfoot’s rendition arrived a year later. Both their versions received airplay on country radio stations and made a minor splash, but neither reached the mainstream.
For most listeners, Joplin’s recording is the first they heard and the only one worth hearing. Which is fitting, given the personal significance the song carried for the late singer. Just before she died, she was romantically linked to its songwriter, the third artist to have recorded the track before Joplin, and she appears to have decided to sing it on a whim as a tribute to her erstwhile boyfriend.
So, who was the man she sang it for?
‘Me and Bobby McGee’ was almost certainly the last song Joplin finished recording for Pearl before her death. Its composer, who was shooting his first film, The Last Movie, in Peru throughout September and October 1970, only found out about her recording upon hearing that she’d died. Which must have made the loss all the more devastating for him, given that her rendition is clearly about him.
Kris Kristofferson had written the song to order for the head of his record company, Fred Foster, adapting the name of studio employee Barbara ‘Bobbie’ McKee for its title. He based the lyrics on the closing scene of Federico Fellini’s 1954 neo-realist film La Strada, in which the male protagonist Zampanò breaks down after finding out about the death of his former lover Gelsomina. A backstory that adds further agonising irony to Joplin’s recording of the song days before she died.
She changes the gender references in the lyrics, however, turning herself into the one pining after a man named Bobby McGee instead. “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,” she sings. “Nothin’, an’ that’s all that Bobby left me.” This latter line is a stark alteration of Kristofferson’s lyric, “Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’, but it’s free,” which serves to heighten the sense of emotional loss she feels.
Once Joplin had brought the song to public attention, Kristofferson made it a regular feature of his live performances, including the shows he played in the 1980s and ‘90s as part of the country supergroup The Highwaymen with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. And it’s arguably the greatest single work of art he leaves behind as a singer-songwriter, following his own passing at the end of a prolific life in music and cinema.
“Janis is white girl screeching, trying to sound black and failing.”
Janis in pretending nothing. She is just Janis.
BTTT
“The junkie. Really? Geez, it must be nice to live a perfect life with no vices and no sins.”
Miller was no Saint. Joined the military to avoid jail. Alcoholic, druggie and tobacco addict. Dead at 56.
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
Janis poured every fiber of her body and soul into her songs, i’m not sure,..was it a quart of Jack Daniels, heroin or a combo? Lot’s of early deaths in those 60’s rockers....long before fentanyl,
East Texas piney woods...everyone sounds alike...didn’t have to try.
I mean if he had actually stolen a military helicopter (and he did know how to fly them), he’d have gone to the brig, or something.
_________________________
If Kriss had no prior chopper flying experience, there is no way in hell he stole one of those whirly birds and survived. It’s many times more difficult to fly than a fixed wing craft. The story makes it seem like he toke a joy ride in a stolen car. I agree that his “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down” is a great musical story.
Thanks. I have the Cheap Thrills CD.
No, I have my own sins and vices, of course. Not seeing in my comments any proclamation that I “live a perfect life.’
But I am pretty sure that the record shows Joplin was an addict, and that is how she died, right?
You are certainly entitled to your opinion about her singing, and I am entitled to mine.
Your opinion. We are allowed to have differing tastes.
“Janis in pretending nothing. She is just Janis.”
Her singing resembled a kitten being strangled slowly to death. Her band wasn’t any better.
L
“But I am pretty sure that the record shows Joplin was an addict, and that is how she died, right?”
You put up Roger Miller but neglected to mention he was an alcoholic, druggie and died early due to his vices.
I was impressed I knew this, until I saw FR keyword everybodyknowsthis.
I would argue that the “greatest single work of art” that Kristofferson left behind was “Why Me, Lord.”
I would argue that the “greatest single work of art” that Kristofferson left behind was “Why Me, Lord.”
I liked his rendition of the song. The details of his life are not in my knowledge base. Pretty sure I was not making any sort of comparison of vices.
Joplin’s death was headline news, so I am aware of how she passed.
Again, you are free to like Joplin’s style, and I am free to dislike it.
“The details of his life are not in my knowledge base. Pretty sure I was not making any sort of comparison of vices.”
Sure you were ...
“The junkie did not.”
Why be so mean? She had the #1 with it.
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