Kristofferson, Kris

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Kristofferson, Kris

Kristofferson, Kris, reinvigorated a staid Nashville country-and-western music scene in the early 1970s with his potent songwriting; b. Brownsville, Tex., June 22, 1936. Kris Kristofferson helped broaden the appeal of country music. In drawing critical attention from folk and rock critics and fans, he helped open the way for a new generation of country songwriters such as Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, and Rodney Crowell. Composing the classics“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” and “Me and Bobby McGee,” Kristofferson also enjoyed considerable success in the 1970s with then-wife Rita Coolidge. However, his subsequent musical career suffered as he sought to establish himself as an actor and, more recently, became committed to the cause of human rights. Nonetheless, Kristofferson enjoyed considerable success in the 1980s and 1990s as a member of the Highwaymen, with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings.

Kris Kristofferson moved frequently with his military family before eventually settling in Calif. A creative-writing major at Pomona Coll., he won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford Univ. in England upon graduation in 1958. A successful short-story writer, Kristofferson began pursuing songwriting as a sideline under the name Kris Carson while in England. Remaining at Oxford for less than two years, he then joined the Army and served as a helicopter pilot in Germany, where he played service clubs. Turning down an offer to teach literature at West Point, he was discharged after four and a half years and moved to Nashville in 1965. There he worked as a bartender and as a janitor at Columbia Records, where he met Johnny Cash. He eventually signed a songwriting contract with Fred Foster, providing Roger Miller with the major country hit “Me and Bobby McGee” and Ray Stevens with the minor country hit “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” in 1969.

Kristofferson recorded his debut album on Foster’s Monument label in 1970, but it was overlooked by the record-buying public, despite the inclusion of “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “For the Good Times,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” the satirical “Best of All Possible Worlds,” and “To Beat the Devil,” dedicated to Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter. However, a number of country-and-western artists took notice, recording his songs. Veteran Ray Price scored a top country and major pop hit with “For the Good Times” in 1970, followed by the country smash “I’d Rather Be Sorry” in 1971. Mentor Johnny Cash had a top country hit with “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and Sammi Smith had a top country and near-smash pop hit with “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”

Making his first major club appearance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in June 1970, Kris Kristofferson performed on Johnny Cash’s ABC television show a number of times during the year. His popularity was soon broadened when Janis Joplin achieved a top pop hit with “Me and Bobby McGee” in early 1971. The Silver-Tongued Devil and I yielded Kristofferson’s first major pop hit with “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” and included “The Taker,” “The Pilgrim—Chapter 33,” and the tender “When I Loved Her.” Jesus Was a Capricorn contained the wry title song (dedicated to John Prine) as well as “Nobody Wins” and the major pop and top country hit “Why Me.”

Kris Kristofferson initiated his acting career in 1972’s Cisco Pike. In 1973 he costarred in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid with veteran James Coburn (and Bob Dylan), and in August he married Rita Coolidge. The couple scored a minor pop and country hit with Tom Jans’s “Loving Arms” for A&M, and later recorded an album for Monument Records. Kristofferson’s own albums fared progressively less well as he worked on movies such as the highly acclaimed Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and The Sailor That Pell from Grace with the Sea. In 1976 he costarred with Barbra Streisand in an updated remake of the 1937 classic A Star Is Born, and the soundtrack album became a best-seller, featuring three solo songs by Kristofferson, including the minor pop hit “Watch Closely Now,” two duets, and Streisand’s top pop and easy-listening hit “Love Theme from A Star Is Born (Evergreen).” Other film roles of the 1970s include Semi-Tough (with Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh), the made-for-TV movie Freedom Road (with Muhammad Ali), and the western (and infamous failure) Heaven’s Gate. Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge divorced in 1980.

Kris Kristofferson switched to Columbia Records in 1977, managing minor country hits in the early 1980s with “Prove It to You One More Time Again” and “Nobody Loves Anybody Anymore.” During the first half of the 1980s, Kristofferson starred in a series of largely forgettable movies, with the exception of Songwriter with Willie Nelson, acclaimed as one of the most astute movies about the country-music business since Nashville. In 1985 he teamed with Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings for Highwayman, its top country hit “Highwayman” (written by Jimmy Webb), and its major country hit “Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” (written by Guy Clark). The following year he starred in the popular Blood and Orchids miniseries on CBS-TV and acted in the controversial miniseries Amerika. The show produced protests from the Soviet Union and the United Nations before its airing in early 1987. Although it proved to be a failure, the show stirred Kristofferson’s growing interest in international human rights, as evidenced by the material on Repossessed, his first album in more than five years. It produced a minor country hit, “They Killed Him”—a tribute to Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King—and contained other politically oriented songs such as “Shipwrecked in the Eighties.” He subsequently visited the Soviet Union and Nicaragua, denounced American policy in Central America, and campaigned for Jesse Jackson.

In 1990 Kris Kristofferson reunited with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash for an album and tour as the Highwaymen. Singer/Songwriter, from 1991, contained a disc of his recordings and a disc of his songs recorded by others. In 1992 Kristofferson returned to Monument for Live at the Philharmonic, recorded with Willie Nelson and Rita Coolidge. By 1995 Kris Kristofferson had reunited with the other Highwaymen to tour in support of The Road Goes On Forever on their new label, Liberty.

Discography

kris kristofferson:Kristofferson (1970); (reissued as) Me and Bobby McGee (1971); The Silver-Tongued Devil and I (1971); Border Lord (1972); Jesus Was a Capricorn (1972); Spooky Lady’s Sideshow (1974); Who’s to Bless and Who’s to Blame (1975); Surreal Thing (1976); Songs of Kristofferson (All-Time Greatest Hits) (1977); Easter Island (1978); Shake Hands with the Devil (1979); To the Bone (1981); My Songs (1986); Repossessed (1986); Third World Warrior (1989); Singer/Songwriter (1991); Live at the Philharmonic (1992). kris kristofferson and rita coolidge:Full Moon (1973); Breakaway (1974); Natural Act (1979). kris kristofferson and bar bra streisand: A Star Is Born (soundtrack; 1976). kris kristofferson, willie nelson, dolly parton, and brenda lee:The Winning Hand (1983). kris kristofferson and willie nelson:Music from Songwriter (1984). the highwaymen:Highwayman (1985); Highwayman 2 (1990); The Road Goes On Forever (1995).