 Kris Kristofferson He may be everyone's least favorite Highwayman, but you can't write Kris Kristofferson off entirely. He wrote "Me and Bobby McGee!" He was a Rhodes Scholar!!!! He got head from Barbra Streisand!!!!!! Okay, now that I've exhausted everything I know about Kris Kristofferson (and even added some spurious rumor of my own creation), it must be time to assess this Super Hits collection. Unquestionably, he's written a lot of good songs, but just as unquestionably, those songs have always been performed better by other artists. No shame in that. Kristofferson's limited vocal ability hasn't prevented a lucrative side career in TV voice-overs, now has it? He's definitely got an expressive voice, though in the pantheon of country performers he's probably like third-tier, rubbing shoulders with, say, Bobby Bare and Del Reeves. Even so, classic country is almost always preferable to 90s country-pop, so this CD hits the spot in its own tiny way. Like all the other Super Hits collections you see crowding the CD shelves at your local Best Buy, this one presents 10 songs, sticking to the artist's best-known material and priced to move. (?) It's geared not at CD-philes as much as the people who walk into a shop thinking "I'd like to get a Kris Kristofferson CD – oh, this one has all my favorites, and it's the cheapest." The cover looks like it was done by a Sony summer intern on a trial version of Photoshop 1.0 – me, I'd pass this one up on aesthetic presentation alone. But it's a decent collection once you get beyond your (my) CD snobbery. "Bobby McGee" is here, in a live version that (I think) features Joni Mitchell on background vocals – kind of a flat version, surprisingly. "For the Good Times" is always nice ("lay your head upon my pillow" – you'd recognize it). "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Help Me Make it Through the Night" – decent stuff. "To Beat the Devil" is a great country-depression song – probably the best cut on the CD. Good Sunday morning music, or background music for straightening up the house. A few too many live tracks, and especially a few too many spoken introductions which bank on Kristofferson's associations with Johnny Cash and other legendary figures. Quite a fixation on being "stoned" or "wasted," but I guess this is a CD where those who know, will relate. All the tracks were recorded in 1971, which is cool, because it would have sucked had they turned out to be like 1987 re-recordings or something.
Review by Redsy Reynolds |