![]() ![]() ![]() In fact, some reviewers favored Thornton’s performance over that of Joplin. One can hear, in Joplin’s wails and cries, the agony of doubt and the struggle of a woman to come to terms with a disintegrating, possibly terminated, relationship.Īs in the case of “Me and Bobby McGee,” this song, although popularized by Joplin’s version of it, was written by another musician, blues phenomenon Willie Mae (“Big Mama”) Thornton (1926-1984), whom Joplin regarded as a mentor of sorts.Īlthough “Ball and Chain” was not the runaway hit for Thornton as it proved to be for Joplin two years after Thornton sang the song, Thornton’s rendition also thrilled audiences. Her vocals, full of anguish, reveal the tortured soul of a woman in love who isn’t certain that her feelings are fully reciprocated. Joplin also captivated audiences with her rendition of “Ball and Chain” (1968), a song about a problematic romantic relationship. He had turned Bobby into a woman she transformed him back into a man. Joplin herself made one other change to Kristofferson’s song. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.” He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. “To me,” Kristofferson says, “that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. A young woman who appeared out of nowhere and later died, unknown, used to sing it, she says. Years later, encountering another woman as she plays a song on the trombone that his girlfriend had played when they were together years before, the motorcyclist asks her where she heard the song. In Fellini’s movie, a motorcyclist abandons his girlfriend alongside the road. The rhythm of another song, “Why You Been Gone So Long” by Mickey Newbury (1940-2002) suggested the meter for “Me and Bobby McGee,” and the Federico Fellini (1920-1993) movie La Strada (1954) gave Kristofferson the idea for the theme of the song. The idea for the ballad was that of Monument Records founder and producer Fred Foster, who said the clincher was that the song was about a woman: “Bobby McKee is a she.” Kristofferson, who mistook “McGee” for “McKee,” says he had “never written a song on assignment,” but agreed to take Foster’s suggestion under advisement. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up.” The song always reminded him of her: “Every time I sing it, I still think of Janis.” “The first time I heard Janis Joplin’s version was right after she died. In his own words, he described the effect of hearing her performance for the first time. Of all the performances by others who sang the song, though, Kristofferson seems to have preferred Joplin’s rendition. Kristofferson also sang the tune, as did such other luminaries as Waylon Jennings (1937-2002), the Grateful Dead, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers (1938-2020) and The First Edition, Gordon Lightfoot, Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Olivia Newton-John, Vicki Britton, and Johnny Cash (1932-2003). Joplin did not write the song, though legendary musician Kris Kristofferson and songwriter Fred Foster (1931-2019) are its authors. The song was not released until after Joplin’s death upon its appearance, in 1971, it soared to the top of the charts. Like other superstars of the music world, there was no mistaking her voice Joplin’s vocals, like her style, were unique.Īlthough she is more subdued in singing “Me and Bobby McGee” than she tends to be in many other songs, she still taps the emotions of her listeners, drawing them into the pathos and loss expressed by the song, which recounts a couple of drifters’ hitchhiking journey from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Salinas, California, and includes the lament concerning the woman’s having let Bobby “slip away.” She would exchange her entire future, the woman says, for one day of the past, when she was close to Bobby. (Her group, Full Tilt Boogie Band, might have helped a little.) Joplin’s ability to infuse the words to a song with powerful, raw emotion, especially deep sadness, despite her loud, often shrill interpretations of the lyrics’ narrative, electrified audiences. “Me and Bobby McGee” is one of the many songs made famous by the legendary blues artist Janis Joplin (1943-1970). ![]()
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