"Before he was an outlaw-country pioneer and a movie star, and after he was a Rhodes scholar and a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army, the jarringly handsome young man was a janitor in Nashville, for Columbia Records, where he picked up Bob Dylan's empty coffee cups. (He avoided chatter with the superstar for fear of losing his job.) After that, in the employ of Petroleum Helicopters International, he flew workers to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico."
"The latest version, recorded by a woman with whom Kristofferson had been intimate-her bedsheets shredded by his cowboy boots during a weeks-long affair-was different. Janis Joplin was neither country like Miller and Rogers, nor folk like Lightfoot: She was blues, and she was rock 'n' roll. As he listened to the voice of Joplin, Kristofferson was bothered by the hard-living Texan's version of the song-the version"
Kris Kristofferson worked as a janitor at Columbia Records in Nashville and later as a helicopter pilot for Petroleum Helicopters International while writing the song that launched his career. The song was rapidly covered by major artists including Roger Miller, Kenny Rogers and Gordon Lightfoot. Janis Joplin's rendition differed stylistically, infusing blues and rock 'n' roll and altering lyrics and gender to make Bobby McGee a man. Kristofferson privately disliked her lyrical changes even as her version threatened to eclipse others. Barbara "Bobbie" Lewis grew up in Waverly, Tennessee, a small town with few amusements but a strong local musical current.
Read at Slate Magazine
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