Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”
“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
Category: In Case You Haven't Heard
How about Charlie Pride? He did a great job with Me and Bobby McGee.
How can I get a biography of Kristofferson?
nobody liked the Dead’s version of it??i thought they nailed it..few ever really do a tune better than the original,but Janis and the Dead do it justice
Love the dead cover. It’s the one I cover.
Moving story… Sure I know about Janis version, but I like the live version by the Grateful Dead very much too…
My Gmom used to sing it to me as a lullaby, and grew up thinking that my real mom was Janis, and then my Gmom would tell me that she wasn’t my mom, and I say that I was gonna marry her when I grew up, I was sad to find out that she died before I was born…
My maiden name was McKee and I have cousin named Bobby McKee and get this. He has lived in Salinas for a long time. And used to sing ….. I am intending to believe that Janis really did meet my cousin and let him slip away in Salinas …..and he was her true love but she had to let him go
Roger Miller recorded “Me and Bobby McGee” in 1969. It was a huge hit for him on the country charts. All the old timers in country music will remember that Roger had the first hit. This was about a year before Janis Joplin’s hit. She did a great job too, but Roger had the first release. Several other artists have recorded it over the years, including the writer himself, Mr. Kris Kristofferson, (my favorite version). It’s a song that lives on and on. I never get tired of listening to it.
No on can compare to Janis Joplin’s version.
According to Kristofferson in an interview with Larry King, there was a fellow in Toronto
who could do it just as well, called Gordon Lightfoot!…just sayin’
“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’.
No Lightfoot’s version is nowhere near Janis’ or Roger’s rendition. Even tho I’m Canadian I cant agree that Lightfoot can do it justice.
Listern to Pink she does it justice
YES SHE DOES! Pink has a voice for that ages.
Melissa Ethridge and Joss Stone sounded great doing a tribute to Pearl.
Joss Stone reminds me her a great deal.
Can ypui imagine all 3 together?
I found a studio version on line of Me and Bobby Mcgee Janis was practicing and she cldnt hear herself right and it was a much softer version. Still sounded great tho. It is a treasure to me
I like Pink’s version. Who is her guitarist?
I am partial to kris’s version…. the way he wrote it! However, Janis does it like no other!!!
No you are correct, but if you listen to Pink’s version she is close tie for first….
A lot of people think it was written for Joplin but it wasn’t. I’ve heard Roger Miller’s version too, but my favourite is also Kristofferson’s. I am not and never was a fan of Joplin and don’t really like her version. I seem to be by myself on that one though. I, like you, never get tired of listening to Kris sing this song.
I agree with you, Janis is not a favorite of mine, too much noise, not enough music. Can’t stand her version so don’t feel alone on that. My favorite version is none other than Waylon Jennings. And Kris a very close second.
My first hearing of the song was by Rambling Jack Elliott. Heard him sing it before I heard anyone else do it. Don’t know if he ever recorded it, though.
Singer/Songwriter legend, Mickey Newbury was the one who took the song to Roger Miller, extoling the talents of the young Kristofferson, not knowing that Miller was going to fall in love with it, record it and put out first.
The only problem is that Janis didn’t write it.
unlikely as the song was written by Kris Kristofferson not Janis
I was 17 when I first heard Janis sing. I got her 8 track and I sing her songs all the time . Mercedes Benz. Is one of my favorites .But I also LOVE Kris Kristopherson too and didn’t know that he
Sang Bobby McGee. Oh well! :)
I recall hearing KK’s recoding of Bobby McGee long before Janis’ version hit the radio and was given a lot of play. Due to Janis’ popularity I don’t think KK go credit for much at the time.
In all the Janis Biograpy s books is writing that KK wrote the song after the trip they did together from Texas to San Francisco.And this song as writen for Janis .
Well Miki you have learnt something. It was not written for Janis Joplin, something I’ve known for years, but I’m a dyed in the wool Kristofferson fan. However, her version is the most famous but it was recorded by others before her.
I met Janis Joplin on the Sunset Strip when I was seventeen years old.She was very kind and I still have a keepsake after all these years.Me and Bobby McGee is one of my favorite songs.Kris Kristofferson is one of the greatest songwriters in the history of music.Kris is as genuine as Hank Williams,Sr and Hank JR.All three are icons.And I believe Me And Bobby McGehee will be remembered as one of Kris’ three greatest songs.
You are so Lucky to have meet Janis .
I found her a gracious and kind person also. I met her about 2-3 weeks after Monterey, though I didn’t have time to talk much (I was 14, and BBHC were about to play), I did get her autograph. One of my treasures also.
Great performers are born not made Janis rocked every song she wailed from her heart and soul Mr.kristopherson rocks every song hes written and will write from that same kindred heart and soul when two people unite as they did it causes an explosion that spreads to the cosmos and back and will forever resonate the hearts and souls of humanity thank you god for the gifts you bestow on us
Agree 100%
I just have a question, KK WROTE this song???? Very few people know the truth of this song and where it actually came from. I am one of the few, along with my family.
I am one of the many who knows that Kris Kristofferson wrote this song. I think you are in a small minority if you don’t know this fact. (However, your posting is unclear whether you know this or don’t know this. I think you meant to say that you and your family are NOT of the “Very few people who know of this song and where it actually came from.”)
All us Texas kids know.
In response to Yolanda asking if Kris hadn’t heard the song until after Janis passed how could there be videos. A lot of artist will write or find a song they like and preform the song live many times before they ever record it on an album to both get a feel for the song and to see how and audience will respond to the song. I have many friends that are working musicians I’ve seen this done a thousand times
Yolanda, I had a few non-beliefs in all this myself.i’ve read a couple Janis biographies in last few years and don’t recall her mentioning kris ever writing for her and had never heard Bobby McGee was a girl. jmo
Roger Miller had a country hit with this song, and yeah, Bobby was a girl.
In Gordon Lightfoot’s version, Bobby is a girl also – though it’s written so the gender of the singer and Bobby are never actually stated.
Diana Gregory , great to hear from a fellow Lightfoot fan I think his version resonates most powerfully with me. I really like the knee-slapping effect for the wipers in the rain on the truck. As to the question of ambiguity of Bobby’s gender, I thought I could help here. In Lightfoot’s cover, he does make it quite clear Bobby is a woman; albeit mid-song. No question. Here is a an excerpt from the lyrics as Lightfoot sang it, in the only section where its revealed:
From the coal mines of Kentucky to the California sun
Bobby shared the secrets of my soul
Standing right beside me Lord through every thing I done
Every night she kept me from the cold
Then somewhere near Salinas Lord I let her slip away
Searching for the home I heard she owned
And I’d give all my tomorrows for a single yesterday
Holding Bobby’s body close to mine”
Great song K.K. Wrote, and personally I like Lightfoot’s version by far the best.
Source: Lightfoot!
Site URL: http://lightfoot.ca/mebobby.htm
Janis was fantastic in all the things she sang. But having KK as a fellow SMHS alumni is really good, too.
Probably my favorite song. I actually got up on a stage in Santa Barbara and started to sing it, but was escorted out by the management. I had had a couple pitchers of Margaritas, and was a tad tipsy. I did know all the words, I just can’t carry a tune.
I was almost in tears just reading the story. Thank you for publishing it.
I cannot express enough what a phenomimal scholar Kris Kristopherson is. His talents are endless. I’m grateful to be a apart of his generation,to be a part of music the likes that will never be again. Rock on!
iconic song by Janis great version also by the grateful dead
Without Janis Joplin , I think nobody will ever heard about Bobby Mc Gee.
My husband’s name was Bobby McGee. The song reminds me of our relationship.
I can identify with his need to work it out. The song Cats in the Cradle has the same affect on me. I could not listen to that song with out being emotional. After my divorce and my ex took my son and daughter away far away I decided I would learn the song and for a few to many times I did not make it all the way through the song but after time desire to perform at your best takes over and your able to push the emotion aside sort of :D
That’s a great story I’m glad you shared it. I grew up listening to Janis Jimmy Stevie Ray and so many more gone to soon.
There were three songs that stuck out in my mind from the same period with the theme of freedom, and if for no one else, for me they’ll always remain linked in time.
‘Free’ by Chicago, ‘Freedom’ by Jimi Hendrix (unfortunately also released after he was already gone) and Janis’s version of ‘Bobby McGee’, with the imminently famous line regarding the value one can place on freedom.
Never learned the other two, but years after having played this behind my ex singing it, I’m finally adding it to my own repertoire now that I’ve decided I don’t have to live up to Janis and her inimitable version of it for it to be worth singing.
Kris, thanks for sharing the story of the song from your view and also for writing it in the first place.
Mr Kristofferson,I really like your singing,Bobby Mcgee
Why me lord and sunday morning coming down,I really I can see you to show my appreciation to you
Janice Joplin sings it well equally as you
take care
Ivor De silva
I can’t hear Janis sing the song without
tearing up. It brings back so many memories good and bad from almost 50 years ago.
God bless her and I pray she is at peace.
Bobby Magee is iconic but I defy anyone to listen Duvaiers Last ride without a feeling of utter desolation
No one else could have written this great song except KK, and in my opinion, no one else could ever do it any better than Jerry Lee Lewis.
This is an interesting story. I always thought that this was taken from his experiences of travelling on the road. There where many songs in the 60’s about traveling like a hobo a la Woody Guthrie and I always lumped this one in with them.
“When the Rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window and I’ll be gone” – from “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan
or
“Someday you’ll look and I’ll be gone, for tomorrow may rain and I’ll follow the Sun” – from “I’ll Follow the Sun” by The Beatles
or
“Since movin’ is my stock and trade, I’m movin’ on. I won’t think of you when I’m gone” – from “For Lovin’ Me” by Gordon Lightfoot.
Interesting that one of the best covers of this song was by Gordon Lightfoot who seldom covered anybody since he wrote so many songs he could fill a 3 hour concert doing only his own stuff. Story is that when he first heard this song he thought nobody was doing it justice so he did his own rendition and added it to his repertoire. I suppose that with so many songs about being on the road he felt especially qualified to do this number.
Nice to see someone else knows Gord! He doesn’t do it in concert any longer – hasn’t for years. His early records and concerts did have quite a few covers, though. Pride of Man, Auctioneer, Changes, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Ring Them Bells – and Bobby McGee (that I can remember off-hand).
Great backstory. Best writing is channeled!
Yolanda and Elise:
There is a video, recorded in Austin in around August 1970, of Janis performing the song solo (playing guitar) and talking about KK. You can find it on YouTube. So maybe KK had not seen/heard of that at the time Janis died soon thereafter. But there is a video nonetheless.
Steiner, thanks, what a great piece! Here’s the link all: https://youtu.be/6iX-EcRKXJw
Thanks again, what a treasure.
World class songwriter. Happy birthday kris
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.
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.
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.