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If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)
Artist: Roger Miller
Author: Kris Kristofferson/Fred Foster
Label: Smash
Year: 1969
Of King Of The Road- and England Swings fame. Awful version, cut while the song wasn't even finished. Used the rhythm of Mickey Newbury's Why You Been Gone So Long. In fact, Mickey Newbury go-betweened. Kris was still a helicopter pilot for PHI in Morgan City, LA when this line struck him ("Freedom 's just another word for nothing left to lose") while shuttling oil workers to and from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico (see also: Help Me Make It Through The Night).
Covers:
Kris Kristofferson [coauthor; the other one, Fred Foster, was his labelboss (Monument); the demo came out on cd Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends (2010)]
Gordon Lightfoot [with Ry Cooder on guitar]
Janis Joplin [posthumous n°1 US; Bob Neuwirth go-betweened (see: Mercedes Benz), introducing Kris to her with the words: "I brought you a present"; when Janis died, Pearl producer Paul A. Rothchild sent Kris her copy of Bobby; Kris didn't even knew she recorded it and while hearing the result wrote Epitaph (Black And Blue), ending up on his second LP The Silver Tongued Devil And I]
Sam Samudio [with Duane Allman and Jim Dickinson]
Johnny Hallyday [as l'Histoire de Bobby McGee]
Jan Rot [as Mij En Hennie Verheij]
The real Bobby McGee was a Bobby McKee who worked as a secretary on Boudleaux Bryant's office at the House Of Bryant Publishing HQ on Music Row in Nashville (16th Ave.). That's also where Monument boss Fred Foster held office and challenged Kris to write him a song about her, just to prove he could. There wouldn't have been no song without that challenge, so Kris gave Fred half of it. Johnny Cash warned him he'd regret it, but Bob Neuwirth thought this was the smartest thing he ever did.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)