Kristofferson: The Singer, Songs and Hits

What’s better than an album of Kris Kristofferson singing his classic tunes?

The answer for some country-pop fans may be: an album of other people singing his classic tunes.

In one of the year’s most imaginative marketing devices, Sony Music has just released a two-disc CD set that offers Kristofferson the singer and Kristofferson the songwriter.

The first disc of the album, “Kris Kristofferson Singer/Songwriter,” features the singer-turned-actor’s own recordings of 17 of his songs. It includes four--all from Kristofferson’s 1970 debut album--that were pop/country hits by other artists: “Me and Bobby McGee,” “For the Good Times,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”

The second disc features the hit versions of those songs--by Janis Joplin, Ray Price, Johnny Cash and Sammi Smith, respectively--as well as recordings of other Kristofferson songs by such artists as Jerry Lee Lewis (“Once More With Feeling”), Willie Nelson (“Help Me Make It Through the Night”), Waylon Jennings (“The Taker”) and Bob Dylan (“They Killed Him”).

For all his early success as a writer, Kristofferson is probably best known today as an actor. But this album demonstrates both the quality and impact of his work in the early ‘70s, when he was widely heralded by the pop and rock press for his mix of raw, Hank Williams emotion and contemporary sensibilities.

In the album’s liner notes, Kristofferson reflects on his early influences and motivation:

“Everything I ever wrote was an attempt to follow in the footsteps of the best country singers I knew, which was Hank Williams, John Cash, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard . . . and Bob Dylan. When I got to Nashville, I was learning from Tom T. Hall, Mickey Newbury, John Hartford’s ‘Gentle on My Mind.’

“To me, country, as opposed to Tin Pan Alley, was white man’s soul music. It was about real things like drinking, cheating, sex, things they didn’t talk about in pop music.

“All those stories about how new (a voice or direction he was in country music) was just something people had to say, because of they way they felt about country music; or maybe because I looked different.”

Yet Kristofferson did bring new energy and imagination to country--and it’s hard to imagine many country songwriters of merit today not feeling a debt to him. Though the set includes Kristofferson’s most familiar compositions, there are another dozen or so songs spread through his various albums that are worth almost as much attention, starting with “The Silver Tongued Devil and I” and “The Pilgrim--Chapter 33.”