The Young Kristofferson

April 27, 2010 12:07 PM

The legend of American singer//songwriter//actor//badass Kris Kristofferson has already been established here on Metafilter. Now (and until May 4) you can listen to the entirety of Kristofferson's soon-to-be released album of previously unreleased tracks Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 over at NPR.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates (22 comments total)

What a day - I just finished streaming Merle Haggard's new album. Apparently getting old and singing country is a really fucking depressing life.
posted by Think_Long at 12:24 PM on April 27, 2010

Way cool - thanks! I've been looking forward to hearing this. I can't wait to see the final package - Light In The Attic always does a great job. Over the past 20 years I went from thinking he was a decent songwriter with a bad voice to becoming one of my all time faves. I now find great comfort in the voice that I used to merely tolerate to get to the great songs.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:26 PM on April 27, 2010

I always mix up Kris Kristofferson with Christopher Cross.
So I'm thinking to myself "what's so bad ass about Sailing?"
posted by bitteroldman at 12:29 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best! Sidekick! EVAR!

KK has always been a stand-up guy, especially when he stood by Sinead after SNL. At the time, she was blasphemy incarnate for even suggesting that The Pope might, in some way, not be all sweetness and holiness. These days...
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 12:31 PM on April 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

NPR has had some great album releases lately, other than the KK album, I've been obsessively listening to Josh Ritter's and The Hold Steady's new albums. NPR also puts up many great concerts (often at our own DC venue, the 9:30 club). There's a podcast of the concert feed, well worth subscribing to if you rely on internet music to get you through the day...
posted by nickgb at 12:35 PM on April 27, 2010 [2 favorites]

I hadn't seen that previous post. Thanks for pointing that out. I've been in love with Kris Kristofferson for years and years. Smart and bad-ass - the ultimate combo.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:37 PM on April 27, 2010

I just found out that he's playing a free concert in June near me. Can't wait.
posted by octothorpe at 12:41 PM on April 27, 2010

I've been lovin' this for a few days. The New Pornographers record you can hear over there at NPR is pretty darn good as well, fwiw, imo.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:58 PM on April 27, 2010

Not worth a whole FPP but I'll tack it on here: a free song by John Prine, who looks like he has a live album coming in May and a new studio album in June.
posted by edgeways at 1:00 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Brats represent!
posted by bonefish at 1:02 PM on April 27, 2010

Every time some blowhard starts pretending that real Americans are country music-listening Republicans, it's worth reminding them of the self-described "left of liberal" Kristofferson. A lot of country musicians, and country fans, are decidedly liberal.

Also, he was great as Whistler in Blade. "Smells like a vampire wiped his ass with it!"
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:24 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Kristofferson is seriously the most honourable, intelligent, and amusing man and stone cold genius writer America produced in the last half of the twentieth century. That is beyond his skills and ability as a performer.

Thanks for this
posted by PinkMoose at 1:36 PM on April 27, 2010

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY
posted by Miko at 1:38 PM on April 27, 2010

More articulately, Kristofferson's were among the first songs I learned as a very young child at the feet of my parents, who sang his songs at parties and played his records regularly. Kristofferson is intelligent, kind, and a brilliant wordsmith and gifted songwriter. Thanks for calling out the previous post and posting this one. And thanks to everyone for pointing out some really good things on NPR music.
posted by Miko at 1:43 PM on April 27, 2010

Kristofferson is a lot of fun with Trick-or-Treat Williams and Rip Torn in Flashpoint (1984).

I always mix up Kris Kristofferson with Christopher Cross.

Don't get him pistofferson.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:45 PM on April 27, 2010

He's fantastic in HEAVEN'S GATE as well + Jeff Bridges should have invited Kris on stage when he won the Oscar; really just doing an impersonation of him in Crazy Heart.
posted by jettloe at 1:48 PM on April 27, 2010

Sounds like there's a good bunch of Kristofferson fans in here, so I'll ask. A long time ago, I saw a performance on SNL (I think) where Kris Kristofferson was doing "I've got a Life of My Own" that was particularly kick ass. But all the reviews I've read of the album it's from are negative. Not being very familiar with Kris Kristofferson's work, what would you recommend as a good starting point for someone who likes that song?
posted by Kirk Grim at 2:35 PM on April 27, 2010

Soon-to-be-released? I bought it a week ago at Waterloo in Austin. It's fab.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 3:38 PM on April 27, 2010

Kirk Grim - his self-titled CD reissue on Legacy (with some bonus tracks) is a great place to start.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 3:39 PM on April 27, 2010

Don't forget his bad ass performance as Mace Montana in "Big Top Pee-wee."
posted by Dr. Zira at 4:14 PM on April 27, 2010

'f'it saounds country man that's whatitis, 's'a country sawng...
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:19 PM on April 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Saw him a few times. . .once, he changed some lyrics thusly:

I'd smoked my brain the night before
My tongue felt like the ashtray I'd been lickin'

Gotta love him!
posted by Danf at 9:38 AM on April 28, 2010