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This was written by Kris Kristofferson, who has written hundreds of songs for a wide variety of artists. He has also recorded many songs and appeared in several movies. He and Joplin had a brief affair.
The founder of Kristofferson's record label, Fred Foster, rang him just as the struggling musician was about to leave Nashville for his helicopter pilot sideline job. He said that he had a song title for the songwriter - "Me And Bobby McKee." Kristofferson recalled in Mojo magazine March 2008 that his label boss suggested: "'You could make this thing about them traveling around, the hook is that he turns out to be a she.'" Kristofferson was not sure at first. "I hid from Fred for a while but I was trying to write that song all the time I was flying around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I had the rhythm of a Mickey Newbury song going in the back of my mind, 'Why You Been Gone So Long,' and I developed this story of these guys who went around the country kind of like Anthony Quinn and Giuletta Masina in (Fellini's) La Strada. At one point, like he did, he drove off and left her there. That was 'Somewhere near Salinas, I let her slip away.' Later in the film he (Quinn) hears a woman hanging out her clothes, singing the melody she (Masina) used to play on the trombone, and she told him, 'Oh, she died.' So he goes out, gets drunk, gets into a fight in a bar and ends up on the beach, howling at the stars. And that was where 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose' came from, because he was free from her, and I guess he would have traded all his tomorrows for another day with her."
The song's final defining image came to Kristofferson as he was driving in heavy rain to the airport for the flight home. "I went, 'With them windshield wipers slapping time and Bobby clapping hands we finally sang up every song the driver knew.' And that was it."
Fred Foster used a secretary's name as inspiration for the title. Her name was actually Bobbi McKee. By naming the character in the song "Bobby," it made sure a female singer could sing it without changing the name, since "Bobby" could refer to a man or woman. (thanks, Chris - Bristolville, OH)
In
Twang - The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations, Kristofferson is quoted as saying: "I had just gone to work for Combine Music. Fred Foster, the owner, called me and said, 'I've got a title for you: 'Me and Bobbie McKee,' and I thought he said 'McGee.' I thought there was no way I could ever write that, and it took me months hiding from him, because I can't write on assignment. But it must have stuck in the back of my head. One day I was driving between Morgan City and New Orleans. It was raining and the windshield wipers were going. I took an old experience with another girl in another country. I had it finished by the time I got to Nashville." (thanks, Mark - Falls Church, VA)
This was first recorded in 1970 by a Country singer named Roger Miller, who was better known for writing novelty songs.
Kris Kristofferson released this in 1970 on his first album, Kristofferson. A year later, when it became a hit for Joplin, Kristofferson's album was re-released as Me And Bobby McGee to take advantage of the song's new popularity.
This was released after Joplin died of a heroin overdose. Her death gave the album a lot of attention, and
Pearl went to #1. This was the second song to hit #1 in the US after the artist had died. "
Dock Of The Bay" by Otis Redding was the first.
The lyrics tell the story of 2 young lovers who travel together, but break up so they can discover the world on their own. The characters in the song were a lot like Joplin, who was known as a free spirit.
In the March, 2006 issue of Esquire magazine, Kristofferson was asked where he was when he came up with the line, "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." His reply: "I was working the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs, flying helicopters. I'd lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired for not letting 24 hours go between the throttle and the bottle. It looked like I'd trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it. By not having to live up to people's expectations, I was somehow free."
The line, "I pulled my Harpoon from my dirty red bandana" can be interpreted 2 ways. The more sanitized version considers the "Harpoon" as a slang word for harmonica. The second interpretation considers it a hypodermic needle, since a bandana was often used to tie off the arm before an addict shot up. (thanks, Victor - Boston, MA)
The version on Joplin's 1995 Greatest Hits album 18 Essential Songs contains an alternate version recorded as a demo.
Jerry Lee Lewis covered this in more of a Country style several months after Joplin's version was released. His version hit #40 in the US.
This was Joplin's only top 10 hit. She was a very influential and well-known singer, but her bluesy sound kept most of her songs off the Pop charts.
The same year this was released, Kris Kristofferson released The Silver Tongued Devil and I, which was a successful album and finally solidified his place as a singer/songwriter. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
Comments (54):
Al Jourgensen of Ministry
In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.
Dino Cazares of Fear Factory
The guitarist/songwriter explains how he came up with his signature sound, and deconstructs some classic Fear Factory songs.
Shaun Morgan of Seether
Shaun breaks down the Seether songs, including the one about his brother, the one about Ozzy, and the one that may or may not be about his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee.
dUg Pinnick of King's X
dUg dIgs into his King's X metal classics and his many side projects, including the one with Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.
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Regarding the lyrics being written that Bobby McGee was a woman: perhaps that's how Kris K. wrote it, but Janis interprets it in her own style, and we know for certain that Bobby McGee is a man in her version.
During his time off, Kris would rush off to Nashville where he was just getting to know Johnny Cash who took a liking to him and really propelled his career in directions that Kris had not yet managed on his own.
It was a delight indeed to have met him while he was in that incredibly creative mode, even if I did have to cover for him and his lack of attention to flying now and then, and can only hope that he forgives me for setting him up with my wife's sister who turned out to be Hitler reincarnated..
Ken - Chiangmai - 9Jun10
By the way, a harmonica is customarily stored in its case, placed in a special bag or wrapped in a bandanna; it's very important to keep it clean. It's also called a harp or harpoon in the South; the idea that the song is referring to anything but a harmonica is ludicrous.
~DJ
Listen to the song again but this time picture it to be about Bobby Kennedy, who died June 6, 1968.
My bet is when writing it KK found Kennedy too long of a name to fit, musically, so he used McGee because it rhymes.
We're talking about a Rhodes scholar here, so I expect the song goes deeper, metaphorically, than where most people try to find an answer.
Everybody and his/her cousin has recorded "Me and Bobby McGee" at one time or another. The two versions that stick in my head are Janis Joplin and Charley Pride.
Marija, Croatia
Blessings....
Wikipedia says this:
"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller.
Some sources state that Gordon Lightfoot issued the first recorded version; another story tells how Kristofferson popped his head into the studio with freshly written verses as Roger Miller was recording the song. Regardless, Miller was the first artist to have a hit with the song, peaking with it at #12 on the US country charts in 1969. Lightfoot's version was a top 40 hit in his native Canada in 1970.
By far the best known recording is by Janis Joplin on her 1971 Pearl album. Joplin's version topped the charts to become only the second posthumous number one single in rock & roll history (the first was "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding). In 2004, the Janis Joplin version of this song was ranked #148 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Kristofferson performed the song live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 and a CD and DVD of the event were issued 30 years later as Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival 1970.
In the original version of the song, Bobby is a woman; Janis Joplin, who was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson's from the beginning of her career to her death, changed the gender and a few of the lyrics in her cover. It was the last song she recorded before her untimely death. Kristofferson states he did not write this song for her, but the song is associated with her. Especially, he has said, in the line, "Somewhere near Salinas, Lord, I let her slip away."
Kenny Chesney makes a reference to "singing Bobby McGee on the hood of my car" in Don't Happen Twice.?
Kristofferson says. "I never heard her sing it 'til the producer played it for me after she died."
What was his reaction?
"Oh, it was very painful to listen to. I really liked Janis. She was a very bright, sad person, but very special and I loved the way she sang. When I was with her she was kicking the heroin habit and she was clear for the couple of months that I knew her. She said that if things didn't get better for her she was going to get back on it. And I guess that's what happened. But it was hard to listen to that song for a long time. And I know she was just tickled to death to know what my reaction would have been. She knew it would knock me out."
I pulled my harpoon from my dirty red bandanna, and I played it soft while Bobby sang the blues."
It's a frakkin harmonica.
I love that Bobby could be a guitar!! That is real poetry.
After all, Bobby's gone, and one could say that by the time Janis gets to the end of the song, she's starting to feel angry and scorned because of the loss. Listen carefully.
Or does everyone already know this?
I always thought Janis was hot... in a, well, hot sort of way. Always wondered what she'd be doing now, had she lived.
J.D. in Detroit ("Don't forget the Motor City!" -- but that's another song...):
Funny you should mention Gordon Lightfoot. Thereby hangs another part of the tale of this song.
I first heard the song (whether this was the first national performance I'm not sure, i.e., whether it happened just before or just after Kris released his recording) when Kris appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, ca 1970-71. Tommy S. intro'd Kris, who then sang it solo with only acoustic guitar. The whole effect was, he absolutely nailed it! -- Put away the instruments and go home to bed; nothing more could possibly be said.
A bit later, I started hearing it on radio by Gordon L. Much later, I heard Dick Cerri (who hosted a folk/acoustic radio show for ages) tell the story that Kris had, right out of the box, turned the song over to Gordon, with the understanding that GL was getting exclusive recording priveleges. Gord's version started up the charts when, BANG, along comes Janis' version and blows it outa the water. Mr. Cerri relates that after that, Gord was no longer speaking to Kris.
Personally, I always liked the GL version better (for one thing, he's truer to the orig lyrics; I esp. wince at Janis' omission of my favorite line, "Nothin ain't worth nothin, but it's free"). I never thought this song was quite 'Janis,' she's so dy-no-mite on so many other songs that no one can touch now that she's done them, and this one seems too far from that style; she really had to work -- maybe a little too hard -- to 'blues it up.' But I've come to realize that this song is all the more remarkable for its flexibility to come off A-1 by singers as stylistically opposite as Janis and Gordon. And my impression of the Janis version might derive from my first having heard Kris, then Gordon, do it in the folk/acoustic style. Others who know only the JJ version are probably spared this impediment to their enjoyment of a performance by one of the 20th century's greatest female song-belters.
Guy
I don't know what it means, but I choke up every time I try to sing it, so it must mean something.
Z in Montreal,
I liked your tracing it back to Jimmie Rodgers. I get a nice ovation when I sing, "Waiting For a Train", along with requests for more Jimmie Rodgers. BTW, it is NOT on this site. I just wrote the lyrics into a Word file. Now, can the new kid figure out how to get it into the list?
It reminds me of "500 Miles", and "In the Early Morning Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot. I sang the latter in Summer School for my Classroom Voice solo. I got a A+ for it, and many nice written comments.
I think my favorite line is, "I'd trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday, to be holding Bobby's body close to mine." So Bobby can be a human, a dog or a guitar--I make love to all of them. I know they are what I will miss when I get put on life support.
What is your favorite line, and what other songs are like this?
J.D., Motor City, MI
Anyone who has ever hitchhiked knows that a woman will get picked up before a man.
No guitar is even mentioned.The "harpoon" is slang for harmonica.
It was a harmonica being played while Bobby sang.
They were holding hands while singing "every song the driver knew"
Folk guitar players call their guitars a Bobby McGee. "Holding Bobby's hand in mine" and "we sang every song that driver knew" were just euphemisms for using the only friend traveling singers can count on.
When it speaks of letting him slip away-He's looking for that home, and I hope he finds it, It means she had to pawn the only thing she had that was worth anything.
I find it very funny that the lyrics posted at http://display.lyrics.astraweb.com:2000/display.cgi?janis_joplin..pearl..me_amp_bobby_mcgee include as the last line:
"I'd like to do a song of great social and political import.
It goes like this:"
That is what she says on the album to introduce the next song called "Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz?" It is not part of the song.
At the end of that fantastic sing-along number, she says "that's all Ha Ha Ha." Everyone should be required to know the words to Mercedes Benz as it is a hippie anthem on parallel with "Why Don't we get drunk and screw" or "Margaritaville", both by Jimmy Buffet.
Uh.