Kris Kristofferson RIP

 

In the morning the sad news arrived that Kris Kristofferon passed away last weekend at the age of 88. He was the one that opened my ears for country in the early 70's. I first became aware of him when I watched a film, Cisco Pike, late at night, which in retrospect was commercially unsuccessful.

The plot is simple, a musician who, having fallen on hard times, turns to the selling of marijuana and is blackmailed by a police officer, but lives by the presence of Kristofferson. In this times I thought he plays the part like his own. The soundtrack included a few songs from his second album The Silver Tongued Devil And I and I bought this record a few days later and it got a good friend over the last decades.

Kristofferson brought a new sound to Nashville: people had always sung about alcohol, broken love and even more alcohol there. He added sex and drugs to the mix, which was tantamount to a revolution. 

I was lucky enough to see him live about twelve years ago and was impressed by what he could do on stage with just his guitar. He has always had great emotion in his songs, which I had never heard with such intensity.

Kristofferson had already made arrangements for his farewell and chose a line from Leonard Cohen's song for his gravestone: ‘Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.’

Rest easy Kris