#Kris and rita

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #44:

Kris and Rita's Full Moon

I've had a great week spinning Kris's records in his honor. Let's wrap that week up with an appreciation of the very best music he ever made with Rita Coolidge.

Full Moon barely merits as a Dollar Bin record - you're just as likely to find it for a quarter at a yard sale or pick it out of a thrift store free bin as you are to splurge a buck for it at your local shop. Incredibly, the record is judged as largely worthless. But it's a fantastic album and it consistently demonstrates the two performers' early craftsmanship, intimacy and grace.

In short, it's so hard not to admire what they were doing at the time.

I don't think you can overstate the immense shadows Kristofferson and Coolidge cast upon the mere mortals around them in 1973. There was no need to use their last names when discussing them in the press, in song or alongside Martin Mull at the Troubadour: Kris and Rita were the Taylor and the I-have-no-idea-what-her-football-man's-name-is of their day.

And so it's odd that Full Moon doesn't feature more heavily in Kris's story. Sure, there's more sway and swoon to be had on the record than stagger and shout, but the songs are great and Kristofferson does some of his very best singing as he strives to keep up with Coolidge.

I'm playing you the tracks in order so far: the opener, Hard To Be Friends, allows Rita to set the table; It's All Over affords Kris the chance to set a bucket of very light beer (that's the best kind, people!) down alongside her wildflowers on that table; and then I Never Had It So Good skips past hors d'oeuvres and gets us right to the main course: Love On A Plate.

Listen to the tremendous bass runs that dodge and gambol under the organ swell; isn't this stuff great?

Even so, a full album's worth of song this precious and artfully arranged would get snoozy - and the artists recognized as much. And so they interrupt the first side's elegant banquet with some classic, middle-period, Kristofferson: it's time for nachos and tequila shots for all.

Lyric sites will tell you the line is:

... If happiness is empty rooms and drinking in the afternoon then I guess I'm as happy as a clam. But if it's got a thing to do with smiling or forgetting you then I don't guess that I could say that I am...

But I've always heard "clown" in place of "clam" and I love that you really can't tell: Kris knows the saying is "happy as a clam" but he's a total clown here and generally whenever he tries to sing alongside the heavenly breath of Rita, and you can hear just how much he enjoyed their partnership at this point. She was a goddess clothed in turquoise and lace while he was a cheerfully drunk clown; kinda sounds like they drew up the blueprints for my own wonderful marriage.

But their relationship did not have the same luck as my own. Full Moon is far and away the best work they did together musically, and I get the sense that it also documents the best of their marriage as well.

Even so: when the bluebird sang for Kris and Rita, it sure as hell sang for all of us too...

[danu2203]

Kris Kristofferson AND RITA COOLIDGE

[nocturna7]

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge Help me make it through the night l...

RIP Kris Kristofferson

[the-birth-of-art]

Rita & Kris perform "Me & Bobby McGee"

[oldshowbiz]

The Merv Griffin Show (1973) at the Cannes Film Festival with Kris Kristofferson

[inthemoodforportnawak]

Kris Kristofferson and friends...

RIP Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024)

[myimaginaryradio]

Help Me Make It Through The Night - Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge - 1972

[balsanja]

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge at Studio 54

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin at 150

Well, it happened again: you wasted more than a few perfectly good hours in my dumpster bin of a record collection. We've arrived at post #150 so let's recap the nonsense that's occurred since we hit 100 back in early summer:

There was some serious Shakey action. We spent six different posts on Neil Young's incomparable Zuma, ranging from the record's sonic relationship with my parents' antique vacuum, to its most bleak, altered, brutal, kaleidoscopic and yearning moments.

Young's Trans merited nearly as deep a dive. We started with an epic teenage tale before declaring it the best of all midlife crisis records. I took a pause to vent my fury regarding Neil's current doings and then went fairly deeply into the record's thematic implications for my own biography, and for Neil's.

What's more, I complained about everything on the Archives 3 sampler that does not sound like a demo by The Cure, identified Hitchhiker as a core part of Young's incredible legacy, cursed Stephen Stills yet again, waxed poetic and personal about Silver and Gold, recommended Prairie Wind for laxative adverts, voted against Cranky, Silly and Nasty's American Dream, got tipsy and blissful while listening to Tuscaloosa in paradise and demanded answers about my missing copy of Hawks and Doves.

And then my Cousin Kris died. I did what I could to celebrate his passing and his incomparable legacy by offering up my own essential songs list and through an appreciation of his best work with Rita.

(Now that Kris is heavenward, busy guffawing with Leonard Cohen, two perfectly reformed drunks in a heavenly choir, Prairewolf has vaulted to the pinnacle of my family's current musical achievement.)

While we're at it, here's a wonderful slice of Kris's second best work with Rita. Why isn't this song being covered by all our current divas from Adele to Chappell Roan as we speak?

Maybe it's because no one could ever sing anything like Kris and Rita...

(J.D. Souther's passing was noted as well. But comparing Souther to Kristofferson is like... well, it's not even worthy of a metaphor.)

What else happened on our way to 150?

I initiated yet to be consummated renassainces for Edie Brickell, Carly Simon, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ry Cooder and Michael Penn. Indeed, Carly Simon merited two posts. That's right, Carly Simon!

Also, the ladies' fierce penchant for Paul Simon merited wonder.

Linda Thompson was feted as well as Tom Waits' 70's persona. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' most obscure track was deemed equal to their latest weeper. Willie Nelson's 615th buddy record garnered praise, as did Lucinda William's Tom Petty tribute. Both records are good, but neither holds a candle to Dogs on the Run or the Woods Bands' long lost and churning pop nugget.

Sandy Denny remained a Dollar Bin fixation, of course. She sang the hell out of a few murder ballads, as well as her own greatest hit and a few Jackson C. Frank tunes, Plus she was way over my head in 1993 and put Led Zeppelin to shame.

What lies ahead, you ask? Well, for one thing, we've got to get serious and dedicate ourselves to a whole bunch more Joni Mitchell Mondays.

But before we begin the quest to 200 let's revel for a moment in my Dodgers' stirring pennant victory; Randy Newman sings everything, and this song most especially, ironically. But for the next week or so I'm just gonna act like everyone at Dodger Stadium and pretend that I don't know any better...

P.S. Stephen Stills Really Sucks.

P.P.S. Please vote! And if you can't vote for Kamala, write in Woody Guthrie.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge - WPLJ 95.5 FM, New York City, April 25, 1972

“Well, I just got in from New York City — Kris and Rita done it all! Raw perfection for all the world to see.” That’s Willie Nelson’s opinion (from “Devil In A Sleeping Bag”). Now you can check out some raw perfection for yourself, via a toasty WPLJ radio broadcast, complete with some doofy DJ 7-Up commercials. So very nice.

Kris’ debut LP had only come out a couple years prior, but he’s already got a fully stocked selection of classics (alongside plenty of deeper cuts). Rita’s solo spotlights are mellow and groovy, with plenty of gospel-tinged vibes. And when the duo harmonize, well, there’s that perfection Willie mentioned.

Not sure if Kris and Rita’s appearance on the Cher show is perfection exactly … but it’s something!

[manitat]

Husband and wife musicians Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson pose for a portrait circa 1973... Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images...

[lesbiangiratina]

[image of me smiling with a thought bubble above my head that says “weird nonbinary characters” in massive bold text]

[cbjustmusic]

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge performing “Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends” in 1978. _______________________________ Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends Songwriter: Kris Kristofferson

This could be our last good night together We may never pass this way again. Just let me enjoy it 'til it's over, or forever  Please don't tell me how the story ends.

See the way our shadows come together Softer than your fingers on my skin Someday these may be all we remember of each other Please don't tell me how the story ends.

Never's just the echo of forever Lonesome as a love that might have been. Let me go on lovin' and believin' 'til it's over Please don't tell me how the story ends.