lp discography - covers & lyrics

Having suffered a commercial disappointment with his fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow, Kris Kristofferson re-affirmed his movie stardom in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and made a second album with Rita Coolidge, Breakaway, then spent some time coming up with material for his next recording, Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame, which appeared 18 months after its predecessor. The album was far more accessible, containing several catchy songs with commercial possibilities. Lyrically, Kristofferson was largely concerned with moral compromise and the difficulty of distinguishing right from wrong, the conundrum contained in the album title. In the lead-off track, "The Year 2000 Minus 25," he took on politics and recent news events from a sarcastic viewpoint, finally concluding, "It don't hurt so bad when you're high." Songs like "Easy, Come On" and "Stranger" extended the discussion to emotional politics, and the title song took a philosophical tone, contrasting clichés to reveal the murkiness of morality. Even minor songs like "Rocket to Stardom" and "Don't Cuss the Fiddle," humorous looks at celebrity life, introduced unresolved contradictions. The album-closing "Silver (The Hunger)," at eight minutes-plus Kristofferson's longest song, dealt with moral compromise in its allegorical story of a mysterious man's encounter with a woman, even if the songwriter seemed more interested in his alliterative wordplay than in the song's meaning. Monument Records, perhaps hoping to hit the pop and country markets with its different sides, released a single of "The Year 2000 Minus 25"/"If It's All the Same to You," but radio didn't bite, and the album marked another slide in Kristofferson's sales. Four months later, Johnny Duncan covered "Stranger" and took it into the country Top Five.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

WHO'S TO BLESS AND WHO'S TO BLAME

Monument PZ-33379
November/1975
Produced by David Anderle
Cover Jerry McGee - guitar/sitar/dobro/harmonica
Mike Utley - keyboards/moog
Lee Sklar - bass
Sammy Creason - drums
Bobbye Hall - percussion/congas
Jim Horn, Jackie Kelse - sax
Chuck Findley, Dick Hyde - trombone
Dick Hyde - tuba
Vocals:
Rita Coolidge, Herb Pederson, Larry Murray, John Beland, Terry Paul,
Mike Utley, Jerry McGee, Bob Neuwirth
Recorded:
1974, Sunset Sound Studio, Nashville and Sound Labs Studio, Nashville

1.

YEAR 2000 MINUS 25

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
Welcome to the years 2000 minus 25
Oh say can you smell her for the smoke
God's still up there laughin' so she's gotta be alive
Who says he can't take a dirty joke

Power isn't power does and power slips away
It's so easy to abuse
Who'd've thought them Arabs would've brought the USA
Just to give it to the Jews

Singing crime still don't pay just like it used to
And you know this time slips away till you die
Well I don't give a damn when I choose to
No it don't hurt so bad when you're high

Oh say does the future of the homesick and the brave
Even matter anymore
There ain't no more reason for them boys to run away
Than there was to fight before

Would you tell me why the hell we'd try
To win back in a war what we lasted in the last
Might just ain't as righteous as it used to be before
When your army's out of gas

Singing crime still don't pay...
Singing crime still don't pay...
**********

2.

IF IT'S ALL THE SAME TO YOU

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
I listened to a friend who'd do the same for me last night
Cause it takes one to really understand
And I watched him try to walk the line between what's wrong and right
And I knew that fool was gonna fall again

Oh but the fool he's been ain't nothin' like the fool I'd be
To keep believe in dreams that don't come true they'll never do
Cause you know it never was too far from love to make believe
I'll be leavin' if it's all the same to you

It's hard to lead a friend in need of somethin' hard to face
Cause simple truth ain't simple when it's sad
And misery loves company but Lord it's such a waste
To go on throwin' good love after bad

Oh but the fool we've been...
Yes it's true I'll be leavin' cause it's all the same to you
**********

3.

EASY COME ON

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
Everybody called the lady Easy for the way the lady was to please
Everybody told her she was crazy lovin' all the love away for free
People hate to see you make it Easy they'll never understand
Some take life for granted cause it seems to take so long
Easy takes it any way she can

Easy come on take it easy come on here we go again
Let it go as easy as you can
It's the sweetest and the saddest place a body's ever been
Feelin' Easy come and go again
Easy...to please...she was crazy...and free

So let's take out time and make it Easy bring that bottle from the shelf
Everybody's laughin' when there's money love and friends
When they're gone the jokes are on yourself
Easy come on take it easy come on here we go again
Let it go as easy as you can

Easy come on take it easy come on here we go again
Bring us down a bottle from the shelf
Cause it's easy come to anyone with money love and friends
When they're gone the jokes are on yourself
Easy come on take it easy come on here we go again
**********

4.

STALLION

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
Stay if you want to don't be ashamed leavin' is easy Lord losin's the same
Life is a promise nobody keeps lay yourself down girl rock me to sleep

We were the wild ones proud in our prime me and the stallion Lord one of a kind
See how we run Lord see how we fall ridin' for moonlight we done it all

Well the daylight was dyin' rooks in the wind she stood before me stripped to the skin
Next to my stallion she purely shown glidin' the moonlight starlight and stone

The moonlight is silver starlight is cold waking to laughter shaking my soul
She was running my stallion naked and free ridin' for moonlight gone like the dream

So stay if you want to don't be ashamed leavin' is easy Lord losin's the same
Life is a promise nobody keeps lay yourself down girl rock me to sleep
**********

5.

ROCKET TO STARDOM

(Kris Kristofferson - Roger McGuinn - Bob Neuwirth) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
It started when the neighbors saw my fancy new TV
That opens up the gate outside my home
And let's me let in anyone I really wanna see
Keeps out all them other dudes I don't

Then one by one they started comin' over to perform
Someone played Temptation on kazoo
Nellie got as naked as the day that she was born
It sure was all over Baby Blue

I've got electric eyes two big dogs and a minefild
And miles and miles and miles of barbwire fence
But the biggest show in town is in my driveway
We ain't had a good night sleepin' since

Orville Baker's showin' us the fastest draw in town
Cora Lee's clackin' on her spoons
Ol' Jesse's trick dog sure does look dead lyin' on the ground
Jesse's wife is a howling at the moon

Charlie's ugly daughter sure can tap dance
Mable Thatcher's walkin' on her hands
Just as I was leavin' for the kitchen for a snack
Ol' Lula Belle amazed us with her fan

I've got electric eyes...

Froney's got an act that's hard to follow
Ol' Norman plays a nimble tambourine
You should see what Sarah Lee can swallow
And ol' Billy does a wicked Mr Clean

Good Lord if I'd've known this future when I started
Believe you me I'd never change a thing
I got a closet circuit circus in my bedroom
And a world full of whackos in the wings

I've got electric eyes...
**********

6.

STRANGER

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
Maybe she was smilin' in the mirrow
Maybe I was too cause I was stoned
Singin' ever sad song on the jukebox one more time
Honey they were hittin' close to home

And I said maybe this'll make you think I'm crazy
Honey don't feel lonesome if you do
If you wanna make a young man happy one more time
I'd sure like to spend the night with you

And she said stranger shut out the light and lead me
Somewhere shut out the shadows too
And while we lay there making believe you love me
Stranger could I believe in you

Maybe you got all you got together
Maybe you keep rolling like a stone
Maybe some old lonesome song'll take you by surprise
And leave you just a little more alone

Singin' stranger shut out the light...
Keep singin' stranger shut out the light...
**********

7.

WHO'S TO BLESS AND WHO'S TO BLAME

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
If a cheated man's a loser and the cheater never wins
And if beggars can't be choosers till they're weak and wealthy men
And the old keep gettin' older and the young must do the same
And it's never gettin' better who's to bless and who's to blame

All the cards're on the table you done laid your money down
Don't complain about your chances boy it's the only game in town
And the meaning doesn't matter nor the way you play the game
To the winner or the loser who's to bless and who's to blame
[ guitar ] Keep your hands above the table and your backs against the wall
Toss your chips in with your chances boy let 'em lay the way they fall
Cause the moral doesn't matter broken rules are all the same
To the broken or the breaker who's to bless and who's to blame
(Who's to bless and who's to blame)
**********

8.

DON'T CUSS THE FIDDLE

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
I scandalized my brother while admittin' that he sang some pretty songs
I'd heard that he'd been scandalizin' me and Lord I knew that that was wrong
Now I'm looking at it over somethin' cool and feelin' fool enough to see
What I had called my brother on now he had every right to call on me

Don't ever cuss the fiddle boy unless you want the fiddle out of tune
That picker there in trouble boy ain't nothin' but another side of you
If we ever get to heaven boys it ain't because we ain't done nothin' wrong
We're in this gig together so let's settle down and steal each other's song

I found a wounded brother drinking bitterly away the afternoon
And soon enough he turned on me like he'd done every face in that saloon
Well we cussed him to the ground and said he couldn't even steal a decent song
But soon as it was spoken he was sad enough to wish that we were wrong

Don't ever cuss the fiddle...
I know that it sounds silly but I think that I just stole somebody's song
**********

9.

SILVER (THE HUNGER)

(Kris Kristofferson) « © '75 Resaca Music, BMI »
Silver was a rounder with a wicked reputation
Music was his magic and his madness rolled in one
It's said he charmed the fairest hearts of this world's fairest maidens
Slick as silver mercury and slippery as a song
Winding like a river through a thirsty world of strangers
Carvin' out a legend in a dream forsaken land
Silver took his pleasure just as freely as he gave them
Hungry eyes weren't quick enough for Silver's flashin' hands
Then once upon escaping from the world of silk and shadows
Sudden growin' sicker of the secrets and the shame
He stumbled onto somethin' real that beckoned like a candle
And never lookin' backwards he surrendered to the flame

Because Hunger is the surface of a darkened pool of sadness
Silver pale reflection of a deeper need below
Mystery and magic are the holy forms of madness
Sacred as the acstasy that slumbers in your soul

Silver moved instinctively within her soft defenses
Soon unfolding mysteries he'd never seen before
And wakening an ancient need she slipped inside his senses
And Silver took it easy as the closing of the door
Then soon he touched the secret fears she's hidden with her sorrows
Darker than her raven hair and deeper than her eyes
Dared to try to lead her to the sunlight from the shadows
Following the line between her laughter and her lies
But Silver left his magic with the legend he'd abandoned
Love has stripped him naked of illusion and its charms
Then one long night her changing mind took kindly to a stranger
Morning found her moving in the golden stranger's arms

Because Hunger is the surface...

Silver stared in silence at the tangled scene before him
Time was burning frozen in the oceans of his eyes
And sadly turning backwards to the world that he's forsaken
He donned the shining mantle of deception and disguise
Slowly with the patience born of silent desperation
Silver worked his way into the darkness of her mind
Waving through her conscience like a chance she might have taken
Sadder than the shadows of the love she'll never find
And Silver's spell was stronger than the softly smiling stranger
Whose star was burning smaller in the naked light of day
And Silver took her hand again a wiser man but sadder
Ready for the stranger who would steal her love away

Because Hunger is the surface...
**********
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