Her and Bobby McGee

The "60s" were a time of great changes, and
great changes within the great changes. Certainly what
is meant by the "60s" when referring to the Mod
era about 1966 is a lot different than the full blown
hippie era of 1969 or the radicals or the Black Power etc.

If I had to pick one song that most exemplied the
spirit of how many of my generation actually lived
in those times, it'd be "Me and Bobby McGee" as sung
by Janis Joplin.

(Forget Kris Kristofferson. Why would a man even
sing a woman's song?)

I don't mean it's the best example of 60s MUSIC -
that's not true at all. It's musically a very simple
song and the 60s produced some wonderful music. And
that song wouldn't be anything close to the music
produced by the later Beatles, Pink Floyd,
Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Mothers of Invention,
Doors, etc.

But in representing how many people actually LIVED -
I can't think of a better song than this slice of life
story of two young kids hitchhiking across the country,
for probably no better reason than it was there and they
were in love.

(You younguns may be surprised to learn that
hitchhiking was not so uncommon then. I did it as
a kid in high school, just hitching around my home
town. When I had a car I picked hitchhikers up.

Now I would not do either one unless desperate. It
was dangerous then -- my uncle's father-in-law had
already died of a heart attack when robbed by
a hitchhiker he picked up -- but the threat just
didn't seem that bad, partly because lots of us
did it.

Now I wouldn't dare unless my car broke down too far
to walk someplace. And I wouldn't pick somebody else
unless that seemed to be their situation, AND they
really looked harmless. The presence of a woman
would help, although I realize it's naive to think
a woman would not accompany or even participate with
a killer or robber.)

Feeling as faded as their jeans, from no food,
rough sleep and lots of drugs . . . two young hippies
are picked up by a truckdriver, which happened a lot
despite all the class and generational conflicts
of the time and EASY RIDER.

And they sing together all the way to New Orleans.

The stark viewpoint that "Freedom's just another word
for nothing left to lose," is one of those things
that nobody quite put into those words before but
it seems obvious when you do say it.

And prepares us for the end when the girl finds
-- too late -- she did have something else to
lose . . . Bobby McGee himself -- and now
she'd trade all the rest of her life to
be holding his body next to hers . . .

but . . . it's too late.

We must lose what we didn't appreciate, to grow
up. Mourn it, and then grow up some more, by
learning to move on and find something else to
appreciate -- although never enough.

And unfortunately Janis Joplin didn't have time
left to move on. She lost the one thing that
cannot be replaced -- her life.

How to fly for free