A Brief Tribute to Kris Kristofferson Who Died This September 28th, 2024 at Age 88

By Doug Draper

Posted September 30^th, 2024 on Niagara At Large

Singer/Songwriter and sometimes film actor Kris Kristofferson as he looked back then

If you are a member of the Baby Boomer generation that came of age in the 1960s with The Beatles, The Woodstock Festival and everything before and after and in between, it is hard to ignore the fact that many of our music heroes who came to fame at that time are passing away at an ever more frequent rate.

For me, one of them was Kris Kristofferson, a singer/songwriter and sometimes film actor (he played the lead male role in the 1974 version of ‘A Star Is Born’ with co-star Barbra Streisand) who died this past Saturday, September 28th, 2024 at age 88.

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Yes, his music, which included songs like Me and Bobby McGee (made famous by the late Janis Joplin), Help Me Make It Through The Night (covered by many) and Sunday Morning Coming Down (that became a big hit for Johnny Cash and a concert favourite for his fans, may have sounded a bit too country for some. But it was closer to music by The Eagles, Poco, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson and earlier recordings of Linda Ronstadt than it was to that of Hank Williams or Hank Snow.

Kris Kristofferson, a guy from Texas who went to Oxford University and left a Rhodes Scholar, was also a vocal antiwar activist and a true humanitarian who never shied away from fighting the good fight for social justice, even during times in his country when it was risky for a performer and their career to speak out.

Here is a video that accompanies his 1970 recording of Sunday Morning Coming Down which you and watch and hear by clicking on the screen below –

Finally, here is a moment in 1992 at the 30^th Anniversary Tribute Concert for Bob Dylan when he so kindly hugged and helped Sinead O’Conner off the stage after she was booed for tearing up a picture of the Catholic Pope on Saturday Night Live the week before. The tearing up of the photo was most certainly a very controversial act that offended many, but O’Conner did it as an act of protest against the church’s failure to deal with acts of abuse committed by priests against children.

To watch and hear Kris Kristofferson describe that moment when he showed O’Conner some warmth during that episode, click on the screen below –

• RIP Kris Kristofferson who once said that when he dies he would like to have the following words from a Leonard Cohen song on his tombstone – “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I tried in my way to be free.”

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