(Ran originally in Sunday October 27 editions of The Times and The News-Star. This was supposed to be the final Country Music column, but Sunday, November 10, we’ll run one more. Had to do it!)
“See him wasted on the sidewalk in his jacket and his jeans,
Wearin’ yesterday’s misfortunes like a smile.
Once he had a future full of money, love, and dreams,
Which he spent like they was goin’ outta style…”
Those are the opening lines of The Pilgrim: Chapter 33, a song Kris Kristofferson wrote in the late 1960s when he was 33; it’s and a personal favorite.
I bet if you asked Kristofferson, 83 now, exactly how he wrote such on-the-money songs that describe perfectly both spots we’ve been in and feelings we’ve all had, that he would, through no fault of his own, have to look at you in the same way I imagine God would look at me if I asked him how he pulled off another sunset and say, “Just enjoy it, because I can’t really explain it.”
Then Kristofferson would shrug his shoulders, go in the other room, write a couple of lines like “talking of tomorrow and the money love and time we had to spend/Lovin’ her was easier than anything I’ll ever do again,” eat a sandwich and go to bed.
The best just have some sort of internal writing gizmo always humming, and a fear of failing to get it down on paper. They work at it.
Kristofferson does talk some about songwriting on the Ken Burns documentary Country Music that we’ve been talking about recently and conclude today. It aired recently to much fanfare on Louisiana Public Broadcasting; you can buy the eight-part series online at pbs.org or at the store.
It’s not perfect; people are going to get left out unless it’s 100 episodes long. But it’s still some of the best television I’ve ever seen, even though Burns never mentions Billy Joe Shaver or Billy Joe Royal but DOES mention Billy Joe McAllister jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
My friend Bo and I have kind of double-teamed the series as we went along enjoying it. One of the high-water marks for Bo was Kristofferson talking about his conversion experience to Christianity after his friend and country singer Connie Smith took him to church one Sunday morning; he hadn’t been to church in 20 years and suddenly that morning found himself weeping. He went home shortly after wrote Why Me, Lord?
Then there are the parts about Johnny Cash, and what Waylon and Willie and the boys were doing in the early 1970s when lots of songwriters started coming to Nashville.
And finally the most emotional part was watching Vince Gill trying to sing Go Rest High On That Mountain at George Jones’ funeral.
“If you can watch that and not get emotional,” Bo said, “something’s wrong.
“Every episode, I learned something I never would have known,” he said. “Like I didn’t know Merle Haggard had escaped from juvenile detention centers 17 times.”
Later when Mighty Merle became a guitar picking, songwriting and singing star, another performer told him not to hide the fact he’d been in prison. “They’ll love you,” he was told. “It means you’re real.”
And that’s what the best country music is, though there is precious little of it around today. It’s real. And Country Music helps explain that, although, like Kristofferson’s biggest hits and God’s sunrises and sunsets, some things can’t be fully explained.
Just as an argument starter and a series ender, here are some of Bo’s Country Favorites. “If you ask me next week,” he said, “I might have it a little different.”
Top Four Males/Songs
- Guy Clark, Black Haired Boy. 2. Merle Haggard, Are the Good Times Really Over for Good. 3. Waylon Jennings, Amanda. 4. Robert Earl Keen, The Road Goes on Forever.
Top 4 Females and Songs
- Emmylou Harris, Poncho and Lefty. 2. Jessi Colter, That’s the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls. 3. Rosanne Cash, Seven Year Ache. 4. Crystal Gayle, Why Have You Left the One You Left Me For.
Top 4 Songs/Lyrics
- Desperados Waiting for a Train, Guy Clark. 2. Poncho and Lefty, Townes Van Zandt. 3. Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Kris Kristofferson. 4. He Stopped Loving Her Today, Bobby Braddock.
Top 4 Bands/Songs
- The Highwaymen, Are You Sure Hank Don’t It This Way. 2. Marshall Tucker Band, Can’t You See. 3. Charlie Daniels Band, Long-haired Country Boy. 4. Asleep at the Wheel, Miles and Miles of Texas.
Top Four Musicians
Vince gill, Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, Marty Stewart.
Top 4 Artists
Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, The Highwaymen, Robert Earl Keen.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen!; you’ve been a great audience. See you next time. Meanwhile, don’t squat with your spurs on. Good night everybody!
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