# Bobby McGee, one day up near Salinas, is Kristofferson tipping his hat to Steinbeck?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 3, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964 "2019-04-03T05:56:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/1 "2019-04-03T05:56:16Z")
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/](http://performingsongwriter.com/kris-kristofferson-bobby-mcgee/)
Maybe in different interviews? Someone must have asked him by now?
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/2 "2019-04-03T06:51:31Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/3 "2019-04-03T07:11:42Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/4 "2019-04-03T10:48:06Z")
[Moderating]
Moved from GQ to CS.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/5 "2019-04-03T12:20:06Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/6 "2019-04-03T13:04:43Z")
I hadn’t made that connection to Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.
You’re right, it seems Dylan read Steinbeck too.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/7 "2019-04-03T13:15:58Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/8 "2019-04-03T13:45:32Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> 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?
Hmmm. Now I’m having visions of you.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/9 "2019-04-03T15:33:29Z")
Doesn’t work for me. From where I’m from, Salina has always been down.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/10 "2019-04-03T16:20:50Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/11 "2019-04-03T16:42:45Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/12 "2019-04-03T16:49:49Z")
> [@Twoflower](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/13 "2019-04-03T17:03:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> 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.
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.)
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/14 "2019-04-03T17:26:34Z")
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.
> [@](#):
>
> Joplin recorded the song for inclusion on her Pearl album only a few days before her death in October 1970. Kristofferson had sung the song for her, and singer Bob Neuwirth taught it to her. Kristofferson did not know she had recorded it until after her death. The first time he heard her recording of it was the day after she died.
> **[Me and Bobby McGee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Bobby_McGee)**
>
> "Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson and originally performed by Roger Miller. Kristofferson and Miller are distant cousins in the Chenoweth surname family tree. Fred Foster shares the writing credit, as Kristofferson wrote the song based on a suggestion from Foster. A posthumously released version by Janis Joplin topped the U.S. singles chart in 1971, making the song the second posthumously released No. 1 single in U.S. chart history after "(
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/15 "2019-04-03T17:48:04Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Hmmm. Now I’m having visions of you.
Do the ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of her face?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/16 "2019-04-03T17:51:24Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> Do the ghosts of electricity howl in the bones of her face?
🆒
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/17 "2019-04-03T18:06:17Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/18 "2019-04-03T18:53:43Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Hmmm. Now I’m having visions of you.
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.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/19 "2019-04-03T19:06:25Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bobby-mcgee-one-day-up-near-salinas-is-kristofferson-tipping-his-hat-to-steinbeck/831964/20 "2019-04-03T19:15:24Z")
> [@Twoflower](#):
>
> 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.
BTW there is a nice Steinbeck museum in Salinas. So they remember him.
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