Kris Kristofferson was a lyrical genius by many standards. His songwriting didn’t produce as many buzzworthy hits as some of his peers, but it wowed his fellow artists. He’s certainly in the running for one of the greatest country songwriters of all time. I revisited a lot of Kris Kristofferson’s music over the last couple of days and was reminded of his many great lyrics. There was one song in particular where Kristofferson completely broke me with a one-liner.
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The Kris Kristofferson Lyric That Completely Broke Me
Kristofferson has no shortage of lyrics that stick with the listener long after the song ends. His unique perspective made him one of the most interesting songwriting voices of his era. Moreover, the timelessness of his songwriting made him endlessly influential on subsequent country artists. You can still feel his influence, even today.
“I’ve always felt that it was my job to tell the truth as I saw it, just the same as Hank Williams did and the way Bob Dylan did,” Kristofferson once said of songwriting. “It was important to me, and I think I probably antagonized some audiences.”
His unflinching ability to tell the truth in his songwriting is part of what made him so appealing as an artist. His songs are rife with imagery and character, all of which point to a hard-won lesson. Many of his best songs dictate the worst parts of life, like the loneliness of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” or the heartache of “For The Good Times”.
Even a song that many know to be upbeat, like the Janis Joplin version of “Me And Bobby McGee”, is shrouded under an emotionally bare light in Kristofferson’s version. He was never afraid to be melancholic a lot of the time—a skill not every artist has.
Though Kristofferson has many stunning songs, one track in particular affected me most during a revisit of his catalog. One line in this song I marked as one of Kristofferson’s most impressive.
“Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”
It can be hard to write something original about a breakup. The idea of heartbreak has been written to death. Nevertheless, Kristofferson managed to make the idea sound brand new in “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again).”
This song has always been a favorite, but I heard it with newfound appreciation over the last couple of days. The final verse features one of, in my opinion, Kristofferson’s best lines. “Coming close together with a feeling that I’ve never known before in my time / She ain’t ashamed to be a woman nor afraid to be a friend / I don’t know the answer to the easy way she opened every door in my mind / But dreaming was as easy as believing it was never gonna end,” he sings.
He speaks about heartbreak in a powerfully plain way. Like someone who’s all out of bargaining chips, Kristofferson accepts his fate. Revisit this heartbreaking Kristofferson song for a dose of emotion.
(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
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