Me and Bobby McGee, one day up near Salinas I let him slip away.
Steinbeck’s book - East of Eden is set near Salinas.
Is Kristofferson paying homage to Steinbeck?
Kris is a Rhodes Scholar and holds a degree in Literature. Seems likely he’s read Steinbeck?
Kris describes the song’s background. Doesn’t mention Salinas.
http://performingsongwriter.com/kris-kristofferson-bobby-mcgee/
Maybe in different interviews? Someone must have asked him by now?
Maybe, but even though he did country music, Kris is basically from San Mateo, about 80 minutes away. In the absence of evidence otherwise, it might just be a local reference.
I’d guess it’s mostly about meter and tone. “Up near Sausalito I let him slip away” would add confusion since that town elicits various connotations. Salinas is innocuous. “Salinas” has short vowels and scans easily; “Watsonville” with longer vowels would distract.
[Moderating]
Moved from GQ to CS.
What about Bob Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” “With your sheet-metal memories of Cannery Row”? A much more allusive allusion to Steinbeck’s Salinas?
I hadn’t made that connection to Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.
You’re right, it seems Dylan read Steinbeck too.
The lyrics are “let HER slip away,” so it’s not Steinbeck.
In later interviews he said he can’t sing that line now without thinking of Janis Joplin, with whom he was romantically involved.
I doubt it was originally about anyone in particular, but now it’s about Janis.
Hmmm. Now I’m having visions of you.
Doesn’t work for me. From where I’m from, Salina has always been down.
Neil Young either likes Steinbeck, too, or Salinas just has a nice sound.
From Sail Away:
There’s a road
stretched out between us
Like a ribbon on the high plain
Down from Phoenix through Salinas
'Round the bend and back again.
Nitpick - Steinbeck didn’t just set novels in the Salinas area, he grew up there. As for “somewhere near Salinas” – maybe Prunedale? Soledad?
Always grates on my ears when Gordon Lightfoot pronounces it with a long i.
There is a small town near me called Salina. It is pronounced with a long i.
I don’t know the history of him writing the song, nor his relationship with Janis, but I do know that she played the Monterey Pop Festival a few times, and that Salinas is on the road to get to Monterey. At least if you avoid Highway 1, as anybody without hours to kill does. I don’t know if the highway from 101 to the coast by Castroville had been built by that time, which allows you to drive from San Francisco to Monterey while avoiding Salinas. I’m also guessing that 17 was a lot more arduous then than now.
Maybe their relationship got on the rocks near her performances at the Pop Festival, and he had it in the back of his mind when writing the song?
EDIT: kudos to Twoflower for mentioning Prunedale. Where there are no plum trees, nor prunes. Plenty of strawberry fields, oaks, and manzanita though. (Which autocorrect first changed to tanzanite. Weird it knew that mineral, but not the plant.)
It is a song about two drifters and one of them drifting away. The name, Bobby, can apply to either a man or a woman. I have a personal female friend named Bobby, it is pretty common. The first artist to record and chart it was Roger Miller in 1969. I’ve got his version on my iPod. Many other artists also recorded it including a version by Kris himself.
Janis Joplin’s cover of the song hit the top of the charts in 1971, after she was already dead, recorded a few days before. It wasn’t written about her but it is now “her” song, and that is what Kris Kristofferson means when he says he can’t sing the song without thinking of her.
Do the ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of her face?
I’d say it’s possible, even likely, that Kristofferson has read East of Eden. And it’s possible the novel came to his mind when he decided to reference Salinas in the song. But I’d be surprised if he wrote it that way because of Steinbeck. The themes and plots of the novel and the song don’t really seem to mesh, IMO.
“Salinas” undeniably just sounds good in the line, and whether or not it sounds good is usually of primary importance to songwriters. The bonus was that it was a place near his home that he was probably familiar with.
And I base all this on nothing but my own gut feeling.
Dude! :: points at kayaker in commendation:: Having a Blonde on Blonde moment.
The ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of Louise’s face, Louise being the woman he’s fucking while wishing he could be with [del]Joan[/del] Johanna.
Been there, done that.
BTW there is a nice Steinbeck museum in Salinas. So they remember him.