“The title came from [producer and Monument Records founder] Fred Foster. He called one night and said, ‘I’ve got a song title for you. It’s “Me and Bobby McKee.”’ I thought he said ‘McGee.’ Bobby McKee was the secretary of Boudleaux Bryant, who was in the same building with Fred. Then Fred says, ‘The hook is that Bobby McKee is a she. How does that grab you?’ (Laughs) I said, ‘Uh, I’ll try to write it, but I’ve never written a song on assignment.’ So it took me a while to think about.
“There was a Mickey Newbury song that was going through my mind—‘Why You Been Gone So Long?’ It had a rhythm that I really liked. I started singing in that meter.
“For some reason, I thought of La Strada, this Fellini film, and a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone. He got to the point where he couldn’t put up with her anymore and left her by the side of the road while she was sleeping. Later in the film, he sees this woman hanging out the wash and singing the melody that the girl used to play on the trombone. He asks, ‘Where did you hear that song?’ And she tells him it was this little girl who had showed up in town and nobody knew where she was from, and later she died. That night, Quinn goes to a bar and gets in a fight. He’s drunk and ends up howling at the stars on the beach. To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.
“The first time I heard Janis Joplin’s version was right after she died. Paul Rothchild, her producer, asked me to stop by his office and listen to this thing she had cut. Afterwards, I walked all over L.A., just in tears. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up. So when I came back to Nashville, I went into the Combine [Publishing] building late at night, and I played it over and over again, so I could get used to it without breaking up. [Songwriter and keyboardist] Donnie Fritts came over and listened with me, and we wrote a song together that night about Janis, called ‘Epitaph’.
“‘Bobby McGee’ was the song that made the difference for me. Every time I sing it, I still think of Janis.”
From Performing Songwriter Issue 107
As you can imagine, having the name “Bobbie McGee” has been quite interesting for me…hundreds, if not thousands, of comments over the years! But it wasn’t until two years ago that it became even more interesting: I actually met the “real” Bobby McKee that the song was written about.
Me and Bobby McGee is one of my favorite songs. I like Janis Joplin’s, and Kris Kristofferson’s about the same. In the 60′s, Janis was my favorite singer for awhile. I did not get turned on to Kris, until the late seventy’s, though I knew who he was. To me, Kris is one of the best songwriters ever…
My favorite KK song is TO BEAT THE DEVIL. Like Bobby Mcgee and Sunday Morning Coming Down it is about the Isolation of the Artist. thank you Kris.
[...] will. I’m sympathetic to both of the above arguments. Meanwhile, maybe, as Kris Kristofferson wrote in Me Bobby McGee, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Here’s the [...]
Yolanda: It was a recording, not a video.
this man reached down in his soul when he wrote songs
he is one of a kind.he wrote with his soul.
If the first time Kris Kristopherson heard Janis Joplin sing “Bobby McGee” was the day after her death, how can there be videos of her singing it?
I’ve always wondered how musicians can hold it together when performing songs that are so powerful I can’t even *think about* them (let alone hear them, let alone sing them) without collapsing in a small heap.
Good to know this is how one phenomenal artist found his solution.
Even better to know that he had to work at it.
(I’d hate to think it was could ever become something like flipping burgers or digging ditches after a while.)
If you ever read this, Mr K, thanks so much for everything. Ya done good.
[...] Bobby McGee”, conto de um amor destroçado. Apesar do nome, a Bobby original era um garota, como diz Kristofferson. O que faz sentido. Mas quanto às [...]
Kris wrote it but Janis made it her own and I thank Kris for a wonderful song but will ever or can ever deliver like “The Pearl ” did. God bless you Janis.
i love reading about these people an how they were inspired,thank u this stuff is great
jim r duncan ina il usa
Wow, that’s very interesting! I love hearing the stories behind a song. So many people obviously relate to them already or they wouldn’t be so popular, but hearing the story behind it makes it even more special.
A great performer brings out the fullest dimension of a song. How many more covers will be done of these great songs that are part of the collective music culture? It is hard to imagine not having songs like this written and produced by great musicians. It is like imagining Classical music without Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Bach; in the same way are performers like Janis Joplin….
I believe when you have a person , like Janis Joplin, taking hold of a lyric like this song, the meaning is transparent to both the singer and the listener. What is more amazing is that each singer who does a cover of a great song adds somewhat of ‘twist’ on the dimension of its meaning.
I always knew that Bobbie had a sex change.
Kris,
I have always been a big fan of yours.
I like me and Bobby McGee, but my favorite is Sunday Morning Coming Down.
I love that church bell in the back ground, just a simple ding dong, but it is so great.
I love your lines too, like “found my cleanest dirty shirt”, “beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad so I had another one more for dessert”.
But the best line is “I’d been a month of paydays since I’d heard that eagle scream”.
I like to brag that you are a Rhodes Scholar too.
Happy Birthday, man
This song has always an amazing song for me it has this unique quality of looking inward while outward action is occurring. I love the introspection. “Freedom means…” and climing on a truck .. I also like the harpoon (harmonica)line.
Thanks for sharing the meanings.