The unknown truth about Me and Bobby McGee ..

 

 The Mystery of “Me and Bobby McGee” Solved After 47 Years

Fred Foster / Barbara McKee

The inspiration behind Janis Joplin’s major hit “Me and Bobby McGee” is actually Barbara McKee, nicknamed Bobby, a secretary who was in the right place at the right time.

(Newswire.net -- October 22, 2016) -- Bobby, in the famous song written by Kris Kristofferson and performed by Janis Joplin, was thought to be a man for nearly half a century. Now, the famous songwriter revealed that Bobby is a woman.

It was thought that Kristofferson devoted this love song to Janis Joplin, who recorded it just before she died. The song became a hit worldwide, and has performed for decades by various artists, with no-one realizing that Bobby is actually a woman.

In 2008, in the January-February issue, Songwriter magazine published an article revealing that McGee is actually McKee. The story has now been confirmed.

Producer and Monument Records founder Fred Foster, will enter the country music hall of fame on Sunday, along with violinist Charlie Daniels and secretary Barbara McKee.

Bobby McKee was secretary to Foster’s friend, composer Boudleaux Bryant, who worked in the same building with Fred. Bryant teased him one day that Foster comes down only to see Barbara, his 29 year old secretary nicknamed Bobby, and not him. Foster pledged to write a song about Bobby.

Foster then called his talented young employee Kris Kristofferson ask him to give him a name for the song. “Uh, I’ll try to write it, but I’ve never written a song on assignment,” Foster recalls Kristofferson replied.

Foster told Songwriter that Kristofferson called him back one night and said “I’ve got a song title for you. It’s “Me and Bobby McKee.”’ Foster explained he thought Kristofferson said McGee and somehow it became the official name of the song.

“There was a Mickey Newbury song that was going through my mind—‘Why You Been Gone So Long?’ It had a rhythm that I really liked. I started singing in that meter,” Foster explained as to how he came up with the tune.

Intended for a man to sings about a woman, the song was given to Roger Miller in 1969 who recorded it first. Though the song immediately became a huge hit as well as one of the 12 best country songs in the US, it was Joplin’s blues version that made “Me and Bobby McGee” famous.

Foster admits he was fan of Janis Joplin at the time, however, he though she couldn’t sing anything besides rock. He didn’t know that Joplin performed this song for her second solo album “Pearl” which was published after she died.

Foster remembers hearing Joplin’s version soon after she died in 1970, when Joplin’s producer Paul Rothchild (Columbia records) called him one day and played him the recording.

Stunned by the delicate voice and brilliant performance by Janis Joplin, Foster recalls his thoughts at the time. “Man, what a waste.”

"Afterwards, I walked all over L.A., just in tears. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up. So when I came back to Nashville, I went into the Combine [Publishing] building late at night, and I played it over and over again, so I could get used to it without breaking up. [Songwriter and keyboardist] Donnie Fritts came over and listened with me, and we wrote a song together that night about Janis, called ‘Epitaph’." Foster told Songwriter.



Source: http://newswire.net/newsroom/news/00093950-mystery-of-me-and-bobby-mc-gee-solved-after-47-years.html
Source: http://newswire.net/newsroom/news/00093950-mystery-of-me-and-bobby-mc-gee-solved-after-47-years.html