Introducing a new, likely highly irregular, series in which I celebrate the eclectic songs and recording artists who “helped me make it through” (to coin a phrase), my childhood, young adulthood, and twenties and thirties(ish).
Spoiler alert: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones merit scarcely a mention.
I’m going to start with the late, great, Kris Kristofferson, who would have been 90 years old today, June 22, 2026. He’s the songwriter/singer I’d have awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” hands down over Bob Dylan:
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 going out of style
And he keeps right on a changin’ for the better or the worse
And searchin’ for a shrine he’s never found
Never knowin’ if believin’ is a blessin’ or a curse
Or if the going up is worth to coming down.He’s a poet he’s a picker he’s a prophet he’s a pusher
He’s a pilgrim and a preacher and a problem when he’s stoned
He’s a walking contradiction partly truth and partly fiction
Taking every wrong direction on his lonely way back home…There’s a lotta wrong directions on that lonely way back home.
The cornucopia of Kristofferson’s songs is large, and overflowing, stretching from the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s. But it’s the early songs that get me every time:
“Loving Her Was Easier…”
“The Silver-Tongued Devil”
“Why Me, Lord?”
“Me and Bobby McGee”
“Help Me Make it Through the Night”
“For the Good Times”
“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”
“Jody and the Kid”
No recapitulation of Kristofferson’s career would be complete without at least a mention of his tenure as one of the “Highwaymen,” a Who’s Who quartet of Country Legends also numbering Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and–the only surviving member–Willie Nelson. They had only one number one hit, in 1985, but it was a doozy:
Like many of his generation, Kristofferson (who had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and who served in the US Army, attended Ranger School, and trained as a helicopter pilot, serving in Germany and subsequently being assigned to teach English Literature (he had a Master’s degree) at West Point), Kristofferson ‘evolved’ in his views about war over the course of his life. Or perhaps it would be more fair to say that he evolved in his views about the movtives of those who send young men and women to fight. 1966’s spoken-word song, “Vietnam Blues,” recorded by Dave Dudley:
To “Good Christian Soldier,” 1971:
All the way to “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down,” 1990, sung here during “Music Freedom Day” at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. (Another missed opportunity…):
Another of my favorites, “To Beat the Devil” (1970):
And you still can hear me singin’
To the people who don’t listen
To the things that I am sayin’
Prayin’ someone’s gonna hear
And I guess I’ll die explainin’ how
The things that they complain about
Are things they could be changin’
Hopin’ someone’s gonna care
I was born a lonely singer and I’m bound to die the same
But I’ve gotta feed the hunger in my soul
And if I never have a nickel, I won’t ever die ashamed
‘Cause I don’t believe that no one wants to know.
Happy Birthday, Kris Kristofferson. Thanks for the memories, and for being such a large part of the soundtrack of my youth.
