Kris Kristofferson

Essential Albums

  • The Silver Tongued Devil and I
    The Silver Tongued Devil and I
    The Silver Tongued Devil and I

    Kris Kristofferson's 1970 debut blew country music wide open with its despairing lyrics and folk-rocky sound, and his second salvo kept the ball rolling on his outlaw attitude. Be it the title track's examination of a slithering playboy, the mournful countrypolitan grace of “Jody and the Kid” or Kristofferson’s husky salute to other outlaw legends on "The Pilgrim, Chapter 33", The Silver Tongued Devil and I is lined with songs that would influence folk, rock and country for decades to come.

  • Kristofferson
    Kristofferson
    Kristofferson

    “If it sounds country, man, that’s what it is. It’s a country song.” One of the more iconic openings to one of the 20th century’s more iconic songs, Kris Kristofferson’s eye-roll is nearly audible in the first seconds of “Me and Bobby McGee”. His songs, after all, travelled far beyond the narrow confines of Nashville. “Me and Bobby McGee” would shortly become fellow Texan Janis Joplin’s posthumous signature, and this album’s three other canonical entries—the stunning ballads “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, “For the Good Times” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”—were brought to the charts by artists as diverse as Gladys Knight, Perry Como and Johnny Cash. A fitting introduction, then, for perhaps the most idiosyncratic of the outlaws: having already proven himself as a Rhodes Scholar, boxer, soldier and helicopter pilot (among other occupations), Kristofferson had turned to songwriting, selling most of these songs to other artists before he finally got his own record deal. That deal came courtesy of Cash, who invited Kristofferson onstage during his set at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival; stardom as a singer and actor followed soon after. This album was not a hit, but its songs are seminal and the release endures as a pivotal entry in the songwriter-first, singer-second catalogue that forced Music Row to slowly turn its head towards the outlaws. That term “outlaw” hadn’t yet been attached to Kristofferson and his peers—hippie, mostly Texan songwriters who were resistant to the Nashville Sound—when this album was released, but his countercultural defiance is centered from this album’s first line, an indictment of “Mr Marvin Middle Class”. “The Law Is for Protection of the People” and “Best Of All Possible Worlds” chronicle wrongful arrests; “Casey’s Last Ride” and “Darby’s Castle” are as much indictments of bourgeois values as “Bobby McGee” is a haunting ode to fading ’60s idealism. Kristofferson marked the dawn of one of the 20th century’s signature talents, and the expansion of a still-new archetype: the songwriter’s songwriter, principled and uncompromising in their belief in the power of three chords and the truth.

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About Kris Kristofferson

Even before he became a leading man in the '70s, Kris Kristofferson had already lived a life worthy of a movie. After rising to the rank of captain, the Brownsville, Texas-born Kristofferson left the army life behind in the mid-'60s to break into Nashville’s song factory, eventually working his way into Johnny Cash’s good graces while serving as a janitor at Columbia Recording Studios. But while Cash would turn the aspiring songwriter’s “Sunday Mornin' Comin’ Down” into a countrypolitan classic, Kristofferson’s crafty blend of down-and-out realism and sly, dark humour would resonate far beyond Music City: Janis Joplin ushered his hitchhiker saga “Me and Bobby McGee” into the rock canon; Gladys Knight & The Pips melted down the folksy ballad “Help Me Make It Through the Night” into smouldering, orchestral soul. And on his own '70s solo releases, Kristofferson’s unvarnished, plain-spoken vocals proved every bit as compelling as his lived-in narratives, whether shining a harsh light on the booze-stenched starving-artist existence with “To Beat the Devil” or exquisitely reminiscing about an old flame on “Jody and the Kid” with a subtle grace worthy of Leonard Cohen. Kristofferson’s unwavering affinity for the raw and the real would earn him entry into the ultimate outlaw-country supergroup, the Highwaymen, where he stood alongside Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson as gatekeepers of old-school authenticity in a genre that was becoming increasingly commercialised. Kristofferson passed away in September 2024 at age 88.

HOMETOWN
Brownsville, TX, United States
BORN
1936
GENRE
Country

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