Me and Bobby McGee

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train
And I's feeling nearly as faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,
It rode us all the way to New Orleans...

-- Janis Joplin

This song is in a category all it's own in so many ways. You can't not recognize it when it comes on the radio. Or sing along. Or understand the era it represents. And for me, it also brings back the memory of learning to play the guitar.

It was at the downtown Minneapolis Schmidt Music store with a long-haired hippie instructor who passed around a nail clipper and told all the girls to cut their fingernails (horrors!) And if we decided to buy the guitar we were using, we could apply the $68 cost of the lessons toward the purchase price of the guitar. I still have that guitar and, on occasion, I still play it.

The instructor passed out a piece of paper with the song "Me and Bobby McGee", showed us how to finger the G and D7 chords and dragged us through the song, insisting our fingers change position on cue even though we were fumbling through it.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose

I'd never heard of Bobby McGee. Or Janis Joplin. But I fell in love with the song and those words. To this day I sing them to myself, most often while I'm driving.

And feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,
You know feeling good was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

Actually, I sing it a lot when I'm driving. And I can hear her voice. And I can still picture those guitar lessons some 35 years ago. I love the thought of being so free you have nothing left to lose...

From the Kentucky coal mines to the California sun,
Hey, Bobby shared the secrets of my soul.
Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done,
Hey Bobby baby kept me from the cold.

Shouldn't we all be so lucky to have someone we are that close to?

One day up near Salinas,I let him slip away,
He's looking for that home and I hope he finds it,
But I'd trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday
To be holding Bobby's body next to mine.

I love the sweet wistfulness of this song. We've all been there. And we all have things we would be willing to trade one of our tomorrows for, just to have one more yesterday. Usually, it's another day with the ones we love the most and miss the most. So to close our eyes and be able to let the music take us there instead is why this song resonates...

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,
Nothing, that's all that Bobby left me, yeah,
But feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues.
Hey, feeling good was good enough for me, hmm hmm,
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.