| Kris Kristofferson – If You Don't Like Hank Williams Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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This song is directed to Kris' mother who disowned him when Kris ditched the being a Captain in the Army, the teaching English gig at US Military Academy {West Point} and what ended up to be his family in lieu of going to Nashville and landing a job as a janitor at Columbia records while chasing his dream of being a songwriter. Kris' dad, Lars, it should be mentioned, was a retired Major General {2-Star General} and giving everything all up to chase, in her mind, a pipe dream was more than his mom could bear. |
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| Hank Williams Jr. – If You Don't Like Hank Williams Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| This song is written by Kris Kristofferson and it is directed to his mother who disowned him when Kris ditched the being a captain in the Army, The teaching English gig at US Army Academy {West Point} and what tended up to be his family in lieu of going to Nashville and landing a job as a janitor at Columbia records while chasing his dream of being a songwriter. | |
| Kris Kristofferson – The Silver-Tongued Devil and I Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Ah, the good old days... the late 60's and early 70's before the days when an STD could kill you. This is largely about a good looking but shy man, as Kris was, who needs to get a good buzz going to release his charms and get beyond the prim, proper and shyness that's been pounded into his being his whole life in order to approach someone with the sole intent to get laid. The other side of the coin is there were plenty of women who with new found freedom from Birth Control Pills and the resulting sexual revolution were just out for No Strings Attached sex at certain points of their life. Still, most women didn't want to appear ‘easy'. {Hence, the ‘controversial’ Rush Limbaugh comment that most guys knew there were times when ‘no’ really meant ‘yes’ if you didn’t automatically give up the first time you heard it or did not get “NO slapped” rang true with many of us who came of age during this era} So investing several hours getting slowly drunk then leaving together come closing time was a protocol many of we young people adopted as OK. Sometimes the one nighter would turn into something more {Jackson Browne's "Ready or Not" is about one such encounter} but if it didn't it was nothing to be crushed over. That is not the case with TSD&I As a former bartender back then in a hip, young people place I saw plenty of what's in this song come to fruition and did the same thing many times when I was on the other side of the bar .... walk in, see a good looking young lady with an empty stool beside her and sit down, start drinking and turning on the charm. Well, actually there were two of us on those occasions ... ah, ha, ha, ha. ... The silver tongued devil and I, who was merely along for the ride. ; ) |
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| Kris Kristofferson – The Pilgrim: Chapter 33 (Hang In, Hopper) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[Runnin:6375] Funky Donnie Fritts and Billy Swan have been with Kris from his early days in Nashville. Billy wrote the huge 1960s Clyde McPhatter hit "Lover Please" when he was still in High School and had a huge 2nd hit that he sang himself, "I Can Help", about a dozen years later. Donnie and Kris who have been together forever and were drunk when they first cut "Me and Bobbi McGee" to tape after they left a bar {Tally Ho Tavern? Yes, the Tally Ho was a real place.} and went to a studio that one of them either had the key for or permission to use.’I’m thinking it was Donnie b/c Kris wrote that song on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico when he was working as a helicopter pilot shuttling people/things back and forth from the mainland. So, by then had given up the janitor job that gave him access to the studio. They sang the song over and over again until past the time the sun came up 'cause they couldn't believe how good the song turned out. You forgot to mention Ramblin Jack Elliot. The reason “Chapter 33” is incorporated into the name of the song is b/c when it was recorded in 1969, Kris and Dennis Hopper who he ended up mostly writing the song about were both born in 1936 along with several of Kris' friends. So they all turned 33 that year. As I recall the story told, Hopper had just come back from making a movie in Mexico where he seriously fried his brain on heavy drugging/drinking and was never of the same sound mind again. He was writing about Hopper and to an extent Cash who may have had reached bottom by then in real time and a composite of the rest who he either had known or admired - Norman Norbert, Donnie Fritts, Billy Swan, Bobby Neuwirth, Jerry Jeff Walker, "Uncle" Paul Siebel {who I believe was a Marxist, done in by McCarthyism} over the years. He also throws in Ramblin’ Jack Elliot b/c if memory serves correctly, Jack Elliot never grew up and spent most of his life being irresponsible and in many people’s eyes that irresponsibility was equivalent to throwing his life away. That's why the song starts out in narrative “I started writing this song about Chris Gantry, ended up writing about Dennis Hopper and Johnny Cash, ... Norman Norbert, Funky Donnie Fritts, Billy Swan, Bobby Neuwirth, Jerry Jeff Walker, "Uncle" Paul Siebel … Ramblin’ Jack Elliot had a lot to do with it.” The one person Kris doesn’t mention the song being partly about is Kris himself. In the eyes of Kris’ mother he had thrown his life away when he gave up the military, the teaching English job at West Point and the essentially the wife/kids to move to Nashville to become a songwriter. Upon learning of this, Kris’ mom disowned him and according to Johnny cash told him never to let his shadow darken her doorstep again. |
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