The Music Maker opinion
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'It ain't Bob Dylan but it ain't bad." That's how Kris Kristofferson introduced one of his songs at a music festival ... somewhere many moons ago. As self-effacing utterances go, that's a pretty cool one. Of course, that's the thing about Kristofferson, who died this week aged 88, he was the epitome of cool, at least he was to a very uncool teenager growing up just north of Liverpool in the 1970s. Every time he came on the television in some guise or other he just made you want to be him.
The definitive polymath, Kris Kristofferson was a musician, songwriter, actor and performer as well as being a Rhodes scholar - he gained a degree in English literature from Oxford University in 1960 plus a boxing blue from the same institution - and a US army helicopter pilot. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot - he was also the father of eight children.
His best-known songs are a wonder to behold - Help Me Make It Through The Night, For The Good Times, Me And Bobby McGee, Lovin' Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again) and the sublimely atmospheric Sunday Morning Coming Down which includes the the unbeatable verse:
"Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone's fryin' chicken
And Lord, it took me back to somethin' that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way"
Couple that with lines like "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose/Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free" from Me And Bobby McGee and even His Royal Bobness would surely have to concede that Kristofferson deserves his place alongside the greats on the pantheon of the finest lyric writers of the last sixty years.
Presumably thinking that all this loafing around was no good and he'd better get off his backside and get a bit of work done, Kristofferson also appeared in numerous films, perhaps most notably playing the lead role in A Star Is Born alongside Barbra Streisand in 1976. He won a Golden Globe for his efforts in that one. Well, of course he did.
It was my intention to go on to eulogise a little further here but, to tell the truth, delving into all of these achievements is beginning to make me feel wholly inadequate as a man and, indeed, a human being, so we'll end where we began with Kris Kristofferson at his self-effacing best. He once said "I think between us, Bill Clinton and I have settled any lingering myths about the brilliance of Rhodes scholars."
Now that's cool.
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