CD Odyssey Discs 1198 and 1199: Kris Kristofferson

My brain is a little worn out from work, so I took a day off today with Sheila to recharge. I’m looking forward to the resulting four day weekend.

Today you get two reviews, because these two albums were re-released on a single disc. You also get a negative review and a positive review about the same artist.

Disc 1198 and 1199 are… Surreal Thing and Easter Island

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Year of Release: 1976 (Surreal Thing) and 1978 (Easter Island)

What’s up with the Cover? Two LPs on 1 CD! This was a big deal when CDs came out. Convenient as it is for space-saving, I prefer to talk about the actual covers:

Surreal Thing: Kristofferson is back lit in some concert event, getting his “seventies Elvis” act on, country style. Like the record itself, this cover says “Vegas, Baby!” but not in a good way.

Easter Island: Kristofferson doing the classic “head and shoulders” shot, right down to the cheesy studio backdrop of clouds. Speaking of original LPs, my mom owned this on vinyl and I used to stare at the cover and marvel at just how incredibly blue his eyes were. The small blurry version here doesn’t do it justice, but take my word for it.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted above, I grew up with “Easter Island” and was on the lookout to get it on CD for a while. Finding it attached to “Surreal Thing” just ended up being an unhappy accident. That’s called foreshadowing.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Kris Kristofferson albums I’ll put “Easter Island” in at #3 (bumping a bunch of other albums down in the process) and “Surreal Thing” in last at #8 (bumping…nothing). Here’s a recap:

1. The Silver Tongued Devil and I: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1066)
2. Kristofferson: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 39)
3. Easter Island: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
4. Who’s To Bless and Who’s To Blame: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 54)
5. Repossessed:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1150)
6. Third World Warrior: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1151)
7. To The Bone: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 54)
8. Surreal Thing: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Clever readers will note that #4 and 7 are both reviewed at Disc 54. That’s because they were also a “2 LPs on 1 CD” package, and back then I didn’t have the foresight to assign them their own number.

Ratings:  2 stars for “Surreal Thing” and 4 stars for “Easter Island”

Surreal Thing:

“Surreal Thing” came out right before Kristofferson role as an aging and cynical rock star in the original “A Star Is Born” and the influences show. This record has its moments, but large parts of it are a bloated mess of excess production and sprawling rock-country anthems.

I put a lot of stock in Kristofferson as a man of integrity and a talented singer-songwriter, so cognitive dissonance makes me wonder if this was the Soulless Record Execs getting the better of him. Whatever happened, it wasn’t good.

The songs on “Surreal Thing” are weak compared to Kristofferson’s other work, but they’re made worse with a lot of overly lush production and Broadway show style backing vocals. Fellow gravel-voiced vocalist Leonard Cohen has always been a master of adding beautiful female background singers to augment his limited vocal range. It feels like Kristofferson is trying to do the same thing on “Surreal Thing” but it just made the songs too busy.

Throughout the seventies most Kristofferson records include some form of “let’s get it on” song, and he is the master of the art form. The most famous of these is “Help Me Make it Through the Night.” Kristofferson even turned the notion on its head with “The Silver Tongued Devil and I” where he warns the woman off even as he tries to convince her otherwise.

“Surreal Thing”’s entry is the most ribald of them all, with “You Show Me Yours (and I’ll Show You Mine)” which gets right to business from the opening stanza:

“If you're feeling salty, then I'm your tequila
If you've got the freedom I've got the time
There ain't nothing sweeter than naked emotions
So you show me yours, hon, and I'll show you mine”

This song is so sexy it is a bit ridiculous, but it is ridiculous in a good way. Or maybe it is just that I’ve been hearing it since before I knew that it was about more than a drink-making competition.

My favourite song on the album, “I Got A Life of My Own” has most of these overblown elements but it is so good I forgive it. I’m a sucker for a freedom anthem song (another common theme for Kristofferson), and I suspect Kristofferson shares my dislike at being told what to do. At the same time, “I Got A Life of My Own” subtly slips in the knife that sometimes you really ought to take good advice. Bonus points for making the knife both metaphor and reality in the lyrics.

For the most part the album isn’t this clever again, with strained metaphors in “The Prisoner” and a vitriolic attack on a critic in “Eddie the Eunuch.” I usually love a good attack on a critic (Public Enemy’s “Caught (Can I Get a Witness)” and Guns ‘n’ Roses “Get in the Ring” come to mind) but this one fell flat for me. Although bonus points for using the song’s title to allude to the song’s target having no balls.

Longtime readers will know I am a stalwart defender of Kris Kristofferson. I think he is one of the great country songwriters of his generation. I even like the way he sings. I prefer his version of “Me and Bobby McGee” to Janis Joplin’s, and I’d rather hear him sing “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down” than Johnny Cash.

That said, “Surreal Thing” is a weak record overall, despite a few gems along the way.

Best tracks – Surreal Thing: You Show Me Yours (And I’ll Show You Mine), I Got a Life of My Own, If You Don’t Like Hank Williams

Easter Island

Two years after “Surreal Thing” (and one “Star is Love” appearance with Barbara Streisand) Kristofferson finally gets the whole overblown star thing out of his system. The result is the far superior “Easter Island.”

“Easter Island” incorporates a lot of the excess production begun on “Surreal Thing” but harnesses its powers for good, rather than evil. The arrangements are lush in places, and there is plenty of backup singers but everything is working together to give the songs momentum and purpose.

Kristofferson has not one but two ‘let’s get it on’ songs, “How Do You Feel (About Foolin’ Around)” and “Lay Me Down (And Love the World Away)”. Kris loved songs with long parentheses-infested titles. I cannot explain this. “How Do You Feel…” happens early on the record and has an early seventies feel, with some guitar picking and an idle grass-in-the-side-of your-mouth mosey to it before it..er…gets down to business.

Kristofferson acknowledges his Silver Tongued Devil in this song as well, but it is clear from the beginning that this time they’ve joined forces:

So many people got so many lines

They've all been tried and it's true
They've all got so many reasons for changin' your mind
And there ain't none of 'em new
But there's just so little distance between me and you

I think we're two of a kind
We won't do nothing you don't want to do

And I won't tell you no lies
So tell me how do you feel about foolin' around

Down from your head to your toes?
Ain't nothin' realer than right here and now

If that's as far as it goes”

As for “Lay Me Down…” has a slightly disco feel to it that shouldn’t work, but kind of does. It is no “How Do You Feel…” but it still manages to be a toe-tapper.

Kristofferson isn’t always thinking about sexual conquest, and “Easter Island” has a good range of both style and subject matter. Some of the songs are very traditional country crooners (“Forever in Your Love”) others seventies rock anthems celebrating powerful and beautiful women (“Spooky Lady’s Revenge”). I love the slow build of “Spooky Lady’s Revenge,” which rises in intensity until by the end you feel like Kristofferson is standing on the edge of some mountain top arm raised to the sky in rock triumph. Or you might think it is just overblown late-seventies schmaltz. If you think the latter, then I feel sorry for you. Let a little joy and celebration into your life!

“The Sabre and the Rose” is a five minute song packed with action and intrigue fit for a two hour film. Outlaws flee to an isolated whorehouse in the backcountry, but one of them falls in love, and he and his newfound love flee naked to the river, leaving the Sabre and the Rose burning in the distance. Kristofferson drenches his story in great imagery – here the outlaws set out on their quest for the legendary house of ill repute:

We swang into the saddle sick as breathing
And slapped 'em once for pleasure with the reins
The horses snorted frosty in the moonlight
Somethin' dark was singing in my veins

Older than the voices in my brain”

 This song is as exhilarating as a wild west gun fight, exhilarating as a romantic encounter and spooky as a ghost story, all rolled into one.

The title track is an interesting bit of subterfuge from Kristofferson. As a kid, I just assumed Kristofferson was singing about the mysterious carvings on Easter Island. When you listen carefully, he’s comparing that dead civilization to America, citing it as a warning against the hubris of empire.

My CD (which I got used) has a bit of skip in the final track, which is disappointing, but otherwise “Easter Island” was a pleasant surprise. I reserved sixth spot for this record early on, but at every turn it surprised and delighted me to the point that it moved up the #3.

Best tracks – Easter Island: How Do You Feel (About Foolin’ Around), The Sabre and the Rose, Spooky Lady’s Revenge, Easter Island, The Fighter

CD Odyssey Discs 1150 and 1151

As you can see from the title, this post is two reviews in one. That’s because these two albums were re-released in a single CD case. This artist does this a lot, and I don’t mind one bit, because it takes up less space on the CD shelves.

Disc 1150 and 1151 are… Repossessed and Third World Warrior

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Year of Release: 1986 (Repossessed) and 1990 (Third World Warrior)

What’s up with the Cover? This is some special re-release cover featuring the eyes of Kristofferson from “Third World Warrior” and some random shot of him rocking out on a guitar. The actual covers are:

How I Came To Know It: I first bought “Repossessed” on cassette at A&B sound in the late eighties. It was in a bargain bin at some ridiculously low price like $3.95. At the time I mistakenly thought that the song “What About Me?” was one I remembered hearing on the AM radio when I was a kid. Turns out that version of “What About Me?” is by Moving Pictures and as you can see very much NOT Kris Kristofferson. Epic music fail.

Fortunately, I liked Kris Kristofferson anyway, so I was happy with what I ended up with, albeit by accident.

As for “Third World Warrior” I didn’t know that album until this “Special Re-Release” double CD was released. I was keen to finally have “Repossessed” on CD and and getting “Third World Warrior” as well was a bonus.

How They Stack Up:  I have eight Kris Kristofferson albums I’ll put “Repossessed” in at #4 and “Third World Warrior” right behind it at #5.

Repossessed:

What’s up with the Cover?: Kristofferson rocks out, showing off his middle-aged man muscles in a tight black t-shirt. I rock a similar look from time to time, minus the muscles.

Ratings:  3 stars

There is something to be said for obscurity. It allows you the freedom to make whatever kind of music you want.

Kristofferson’s music through the late seventies and early eighties was a mix of outlaw country and sexy grooves for men who take their shirts off a lot in mixed company and the women who don’t mind.

“Repossessed” changes gears, keeping the mix of country and contemporary rock but with a stronger focus on the slow wear of years on the human heart. These are songs for the weary and the worn out, laced with a thread of social activism and stoic resistance that has always been a key part of Kristofferson’s sound.

The most heartbroken of all is “Shipwrecked in the Eighties” a song about one of Kristofferson’s long-standing causes; the fate of Vietnam veterans. In 1986, it had only been ten years since the end of that war and the horrors were still fresh in the minds of those unfortunate to have fought in it. Through it all, Kristofferson’s vocals meander with their gravelly truth:

“Well you fight like the devil to just keep your head above water

Chained to whatever you got that you can’t throw away

And you’re shooting through space on this river of life that you’re riding

And it’s whirling and sucking you deeper on down every day.”

The song is a mix of a guitar strum on the high strings, with an organ providing the bass notes. The beat drags with a weary doom, punctuated by a mournful harmonica that keeps the wound fresh. Kristofferson likens post-traumatic stress with death by drowning, and it is not a quick death.

On “Anthem ‘84” Kristofferson sings from the perspective of a soldier who has kept himself together, only to find his partner is losing herself. The soldier brings a foxhole mentality to the situation, and maybe the kind of toughness and inner strength needed to withstand it:

“If you’re looking for a fighter who’ll defend you

And love you for your freedom, I’m your man

I ain’t gonna leave you for the crazy things you’re doin’

Don’t ask me to lend a helping hand.”

Like “Shipwrecked in the Eighties,” “Anthem ‘84’” is buoyed by long lines of sprung rhythm that lilt along to Kristofferson’s rough vocals. He sings like he’s just taken a shot of whiskey, with a homespun truth that comes from having done it all, and lived to see the other side.

“Repossessed” has a lot of tough love about it, but it is still very much about love. When on “The Heart” Kristofferson sings “If they deal you down and dirty in a way you don’t deserve/You’ll feel better if you take it like a man” it may seem callous, but this brand of stoicism has gotten me through more than a few bad patches. He’s like that rough and kindly uncle that catches you crying out back but pretends he didn’t, and invites you to come out back and shoot some cans. Feels good to shoot some cans, and if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s OK. He’s just gonna be there in case you do.

I suspect for a lot of people this record comes off as a bit schmaltzy and there are places where Kristofferson probably crosses that line, but overall his honesty wins through. If it sounds schmaltzy it’s just because when manly vampire-killin’ real men like Kris Kristofferson show their feels it can be a bit awkward. But it is all the more real for that awkwardness. Because of this I forgive this record its excesses when they happen.

For an album made in 1986, “Repossessed” is surprisingly free of drum machine and synth fuzz and I was happy for their absence. It is still a bit tinny in places, but overall this album has a grounded feel that was missing from a lot of other artists of similar vintage at the time.

Most of all, it is a reminder that being tough and sensitive may seem like opposites, but really they’re yin and yang and you’ll need both of them to stay upright on life’s long road. There are records that do it better, but “Repossessed” a gruff charm to its delivery that is warm and real.

Best tracks - Repossessed: Shipwrecked in the Eighties, They Killed Him, What About Me, Anthem ’84, The Heart

Third World Warrior

What’s up with the Cover?:  Kristofferson is a master of the Giant Head cover, and this could be his crowning achievement. This head is real big, and real haggard.

Ratings:  3 stars

The other great thing about obscurity is you can say whatever you like, and on “Third World Warrior” Kris Kristofferson does just that, launching into a politically charged album without hesitation or apology.

The album opens with “The Eagle and the Bear” where Kristofferson makes it clear that he doesn’t care about either major superpower – his interest is in the regular folks who suffer whenever nations clash:

“I will fight and I will die for freedom

Up against an eagle or a bear

I will help my brother and we’ll sink or swim together

If you don’t like it mister, I don’t care.”

The song is grounded in a solemn piano piece, but in the background the snap of the snare is Kristofferson’s call to action.

Central America (particularly El Salvador and Nicaragua) feature prominently throughout the record as does the apartheid regime in South Africa and many of the songs have a protest sing-a-long quality that calls to mind rallies and placards.

In many places on the album Kristofferson just talks over the music, naming a wide mix of heroes (among them Gary Cooper, John Kennedy, Martin Luther, Malcolm X and Jesus) or calling out various things he wants fixed in the world. This was a bit jarring, because the songs are strong enough on their own in making their point, and the spoken word sections feel more like rhetoric than poetry.

Kristofferson dedicates an entire song to then-prominent politician Jesse Jackson, who was fresh from pursuing a run for president back in 1988. It is an upbeat celebration even though lines like “They ain’t ready for you yet, but it’s a start” showcase Kristofferson’s disappointment that Jackson wasn’t chosen to represent the Democrats (that was Michael Dukakis). It’s too bad Willie Nelson gets a guest verse. Willie seems like a nice guy and all, but as I just noted on my Rhiannon Giddens review, I’m not a fan of his voice.

The album has some beautiful background vocal work in places and I regret that the combined efforts of the liner notes and internet did not reveal specifically who it was. Whoever does those soulful shouts deep in the mix – thank you!

As you might expect from an album with a lot of songs about Central America, there are plenty of Spanish and Caribbean rhythms and you can smell the beach and the blue seas of lands that have always been luckier in their climate than their political stability. Sometimes these rhythms worked, and other times they were too processed and artificial as eighties production finally caught up with Kristofferson.

Whatever you think about any of the issues Kristofferson raises, you have to admire him for his fearlessness. This album covers a lot of uncomfortable topics back in 1990 and much of his traditional fan-base would have preferred he stuck to shaking ribbons from pretty ladies hair and singing about hangovers. He doesn’t care. Kristofferson pokes the bear, scoffs at the eagle and makes his points forcefully and without apology.

Best tracks – Third World Warrior: The Eagle and the Bear, Don’t let the Bastards (Get You Down), Jesse Jackson (Sung with Willie Nelson)

CD Odyssey Disc 1066: Kris Kristofferson

After a couple of new (to me) albums in a row I was hankering for a record that had been in my collection for a while, and the Dice Gods did not disappoint, bringing me an album I’ve known virtually my entire life.

Disc 1066 is…The Silver Tongued Devil and I

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Year of Release: 1971

What’s up with the Cover? A very young Kris Kristofferson (this is many years before he ever hunted vampires) poses in the traditional country style; thumbs hooked over a giant belt buckle.

How I Came To Know It: My mom had this record on vinyl and I grew up with it. I got this copy years ago at Lyle’s Place at a bargain price.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Kris Kristofferson albums, and “Silver Tongued Devil…” is the best. I know I put his self-titled debut first way back at Disc 39 but “Silver Tongued Devil” wins by doing everything “Kristofferson” does, but in two less songs.

Ratings: 4 stars

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ heart-rending documentary series on the Vietnam War, so it’s fitting I’m reviewing an album that not only came out during Vietnam, but by an artist that has spent a career honouring the wounded warriors that fought there.

1971 was a year of uncertainty and revolution in the United States, and Kristofferson’s outlaw country, give-no-damns approach broadcasts that experience loud and clear across the decades since it was released.

Kristofferson doesn’t have a huge range as a vocalist, but his crushed-gravel tone and raw, honest delivery more than makes up for that. When Kristofferson describes a character like junkie friend “Billy Dee” you not only see him in your mind’s eye, your heart aches for him as he overdoses and dies. Whether Billy Dee was a real man, or just an invention of Kristofferson’s art doesn’t matter; in that moment, he’s real to you.

When Kristofferson sings “Good Christian Soldier” you feel like you’re sitting there in the foxhole with that “son of an Okie preacher” hoping the Viet Cong would pass them by and no one would die. It is so resonant, for years I was convinced Kristofferson served in Vietnam, but a Google search revealed that while he was an army helicopter pilot who volunteered to go, he was assigned a military teaching job instead. Kristofferson quit and became a songwriter.

While not as famous as some anti-war songs, “Good Christian Soldier” cuts close to the bone on what the experience must’ve been like:

“'Cause it's hard to be a Christian soldier, when you tote a gun
And it hurts to have to watch a grown man cry
But we're, playin' cards, writin' home, an' havin' lots of fun
Tellin' jokes and learnin' how to die.”

I knew this album very young, and some of the nuance of Kristofferson’s songwriting escaped me. The title track is about a man fighting his baser nature, seducing a woman at a bar even as part of him wants to warn her away:

“I took myself down, to the Tally Ho Tavern
To buy me a bottle of beer
And I sat me down by a tender young maiden
Whose eyes were as dark as her hair

“And as I was searching from bottle to bottle
For somethin' unfoolish to say
That silver tongued devil just slipped from the shadows
And smilingly stole her away”

As a kid I thought an actual devil had sat down with Kristofferson and stole away his girl. I used to imagine his demonic powers of persuasion, and Kristofferson as some kind of noble hero who couldn’t quite rescue her. Later in life, you realize the devil’s inside, but when you’re 5 or 6 the world is delightfully literal.

The record is at its best when Kristofferson sings of lost love, and the classic “Loving Her Was Easier” is one of the great lovelorn songs of modern music, dripping with beautiful imagery from its opening lines:

“I have seen the morning burning golden on the mountain in the sky

Aching with the feeling of the freedom of an eagle when she flies.”

Loving is simple and easy when you find the right one, and while the memory is obviously a good one, the song is tinged with regret, with the use of the past tense weighing heavily on every image. It’s a love that’s over. The song is underscored with flourishes of violin and flute that come close to schmaltz, but never quite cross over. This is a song for hopeless romantics everywhere.

Many of the songs on the album have key changes that along with the string create an orchestral feel, and make your emotions swell mid-way through. On some tracks he employs Mexican trumpet to good effect as well. Kristofferson is a gifted songwriter who knows how to keep your ear keen musically while he fills your head with rich imagery.

A lot of people will tell you that they prefer a Kristofferson song covered by someone else; his gravelly honesty is just too much truth, and too little tune. I disagree. There just isn’t anyone else I’d rather have sing these lines from “The Pilgrim-Chapter 33”:

“He's a poet, an' he's a picker, he's a prophet, an' he's a pusher
He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction
Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”

A bunch of nouns and some contradictions, and some dropped ‘g’s and Kristofferson sets the image of his character solid and clear in your mind. He’s a natural storyteller and never better at drawing you into his narratives than on “Silver Tongued Devil...” It is a classic album that is often overlooked.

Best tracks: The Silver Tongued Devil and I, Billy Dee, Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again), When I Loved Her, The Pilgrim-Chapter 33

CD Odyssey Disc 53: Kris Kristofferson

I still have a backlog of 8 new discs to review (I've heard them all now at least once, but I'm mixing in a random disc every other time to keep things chaotic.

This entry is actually one disc, that was originally two records, so this review is a 2 for 1 deal, just like the album.

Disc 53 is...Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame AND To the Bone

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Year of Release: 1975 (Who's To Bless...) 1981 (To the Bone)

How I Came To Know It: I have known Kris Kristofferson since my Mom listened to him when I was a child. I first reviewed him back on Disc 39 of the Odyssey, so I'll try not to be repetitive. Mom owned "Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame" so I know that album fairly well, but "To The Bone" I hadn't heard until I got this package deal.

How It Stacks Up: I have eight Kristofferson records now, of which I know six fairly well. "Who's To Bless" I'd put 2nd or 3rd. "To The Bone" is at best 7th, and maybe 8th.

Rating: "Who's To Bless" gets a solid 3 stars. To The Bone gets a bare 2.

I won't get into the basics on Kristofferson since I covered those back at Disc 39 (great songwriter, remade a lot, kick ass vampire killer etc.). I'll focus on these two albums.

Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame

I really liked this album, even with its faults. It is strong mix of political songs like "The Year 2000 Minus 25" which I think must be about the Vietnam War, to some strong 'booty call' work in "Easy, Come On" and "Stranger" to his tough break up stuff with "Who's To Bless And Who's to Blame"

This latter song I think was the "hit", but it is hard for me to tell. I grew up with this album, so all the songs sound very familiar. In any case, I really like the title track, which is a longing song about heartbreak, and how it is hard to lay blame in a failed relationship, because when things go wrong, they just go wrong - there aren't any clear cut villains.

More than his first album, this record augments Kristofferson's voice with back up singers and more interesting musical arrangements. As Sheila rightly pointed out to me, he is kind of an American Leonard Cohen (during Leonard's late 70s/early 80s sound). Did one of these artists steal the other one's sound?

It doesn't matter - as Kristofferson points out himself in "Don't Cuss the Fiddle":

Don't ever cuss that fiddle boy
Unless you want that fiddle out of tune
That picker there in trouble, boy
Ain't nothin' but another side of you
If we ever get to heaven, boys
It ain't because we ain't done nothin' wrong
We're in this gig together
So let's settle down and steal each other's songs

Bottom line, while there are some forgettable tracks on this album, overall it is strong, with a few really memorable songs. Good for 3 stars.

To The Bone:

By contrast, 1981's To The Bone is simply not that strong of an album. It is a hard core break up/divorce album. These can work, but this one doesn't. Most of Kristofferson's talent is squandered in songs that come off as too angry or too pathetic. It is too bad, because I like his work, but every artist is due for a clunker once on a while. This album is Kristofferson's.

So my goal is to find a CD release with just "Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame" that has quality recording production. Then I can de-pair this terrible connection for ever more. Overall, though it is worth having. And although Sheila doesn't really like Kristofferson, I think we can all agree he is a good guy to have around if you are having a battle with vampires.

Best tracks:

Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame: The Year 2000 Minus 25, Stranger, Who's To Bless And Who's To Blame, Don't Cuss That Fiddle.

To the Bone: Magdalene, Blessing In Disguise

CD Odyssey Disc 39: Kris Kristofferson

Hey, if it sounds country, man, that's what it is - it's a country review.

Disc 39 is...Kristofferson

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Year of Release: 1970

How I Came To Know It: Another artist I was introduced to by my mother. I didn't get a lot of the songs then, but I liked the sound.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Kristofferson albums. This one is not always my sentimental favourite, but it is I think the best overall.

Rating: 4 stars.

It is fitting that I only recently reviewed a Lucinda Williams album before this one. Like Williams, Kris Kristofferson is an underappreciated songwriter who often has his songs co-opted and made famous by someone else.

Unlike Lucinda, Kristofferson is a kick ass vampire hunter in those Blade movies, who has a wicked potty mouth and a penchant for building contraptions to help the ultra-cool half-vampire Blade clean up the city streets of bad guys!

If Kristofferson had played "The Dude" in "The Big Lebowski" intruders in his house would be staining his rug with blood, not pee, and those nihilists would have lost a lot more than Aimee Mann's toe. Walter's car would've been a lot more kick-ass, and that bag full of dirty underwear would've been a UV bomb.

If that didn't work, "The Dude" would call up a few dozen truckers to level the bowling alley with tractor trailers.

I could go on - but I think I've made my point.

Back to the album - this is (I believe) his first, and came out in 1969 or 1970 (the date seems a little hazy). When I first went to buy it, I almost put it back thinking it was a Greatest Hits album, but it is just that there are a lot of recognizeable songs. Me and Bobby McGee, Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down and Help Me Make It Through the Night were all hits - mostly for someone else.

Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash did the first two, and the last one at least Kristofferson got partial billing in a duet with Rita Coolidge.

In every case, I prefer Kristofferson's version. And not just because it is "the original" - I'm over that. I just like his gravelly voice, and the raw honesty in his singing. For the record, I like the remake by Johnny Cash of "Sunday Mornin'", but I'm not a big fan of Joplin or Rita Coolidge (although I do take a perverse pleasure in putting them in the same sentence).

I really dig the song "To Beat the Devil" which is about a hungry singer who steps into a bar, and meets some old guy who buys him a beer and tries to convince him that he'll never make a difference. Amid a really cool, wild west sort of feeling, Kristofferson kind of raps out the encounter - and then remakes the Devil's song from a message of despair:

If you waste your time a-talking to the people who don’t listen
To the things that you are saying who do you thinks going to hear?
And if you should die explaining how the things that they complain about
Are things they could be changing, who d’you thinks gonna to care?

There were other lonely singers in a world turned deaf and blind who
Were crucified for what they tried to show,
And their voices have been scattered by the swirling winds of time,
cause the truth remains that no-one wants to know.

to a message of hope:

And you still can hear me singing to the people who don’t listen
To the things that I am saying, praying someone’s going to hear;
And I guess I’ll die explaining how the things that they complain about
Are things they could be changing, hoping someone’s gonna to care.

I was born a lonely singer and I’m bound to die the same
But I’ve got to feed the hunger in my soul;
And if I never have a nickel I won't ever die of shame
cause I don’t believe that no-one wants to know.

With the kicker, "I'm not sayin' I beat the devil. But I drank his beer for nothin' and then I stole his song."

I like the idea of stealin' the Devil's song - it is like getting the devil to surrender his gold fiddle, except you get a song AND he has to buy you a beer. I think that trumps Charlie Daniels.

Like most remastered classics, the producers felt the need to put 4 bonus, previously unreleased tracks. This time they got it right, with at least 3 being worth the price of admission, particularly the first track "The Junkie, and The Juicehead, Minus Me" which is a pretty good track about being down and out by a guy who was pretty familiar with being down and out.

The verdict: this is classic outlaw country, and one of the better examples of same. If you like that kind of music, this would do you right

Best tracks: To Beat The Devil, Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through The Night, The Law is For Protection of the People, Sunday Mornin' Coming Down