Me and Bobby McGee - Allison Crowe live video free download


29,349
Duration: 04:59
Uploaded: 2009/01/23

Canadian musician Allison Crowe performs live in concert "Me and Bobby McGee", the Fred Foster, Kris Kristofferson song recorded most famously, iconically, by Janis Joplin.

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/me-and-bobby-mcgee

"Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics," says Allan Showalter of "Cohencentric" blog (http://cohencentric.com), noted as “arguably the greatest living (Leonard) Cohen expert”.

Showalter explains: "Of course, the credentials that matter most are her performances. If you haven't heard her powerful yet not strident version of 'Hallelujah'... I urge you to do so now. Then, for something completely different, listen to her take on Ronnie Shannon's 'I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)', which is (forgive me, Aretha) the best I've heard.

" 'Me and Bobby McGee,' the song authored by Kris Kristofferson and popularized by Janis Joplin (although Roger Miller's version was the first to rank as a hit), is not one of my favorites, but it is useful as an example of Allison Crowe's skills, in part because most readers of this blog have, I suspect, heard it sung by at least a couple of performers.

"Also noteworthy, however, is the choice of this song itself. If Allison had asked me to select 100 possible covers for her to play in a concert, a real concert with a fancy piano set in the converted church chapel of the Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia, a concert that would become the album, Allison Crowe Live At Wood Hall (with album art... radiating dangerous levels of wholesomeness), 'Me and Bobby McGee would not have been on my list. Nor would it have been on my Possible Allison Crowe Covers #101-200″ list, nor the #201 to 300″ list. Me and Bobby McGee is a Kristofferson-Joplin-Miller kind of song. Kenny Rogers, when he was still the Kenny Rogers in Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, sang it, as did Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Haley & His Comets, Sam The Sham, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. Waylon sang it. So did The Grateful Dead and Dolly Parton. It is definitely not an Allison Crowe kind of song.

"Until she sings it.

"Although Allison introduces over a dozen significant adaptations to 'Me and Bobby McGee,' I'll point out only one nuance. Listen to her inflected pronunciation of 'Baton Rouge' in the first line, 'Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train.' It makes this version of the song her own from that point, giving the song a richer, more complex flavor than those rendered in flat Midwestern intonations. Yet, performed the same way by almost anyone else, the same tactic would come off as too precious by half."

Images are from Billie Woods, ( http://www.billiewoods.com ), the terrifically talented photographer who regularly tours Europe with Crowe. These pics are from such locations as Frankfurt and Siegen, Germany and Durness, Scotland where Allison Crowe headlined the 'Northern Lights Festival', a benefit for the John Lennon Memorial Garden.

Comments

9 years ago

Beastmodeiscool

Singing this at the top of my lungs going downhill on the way home from school on my bike. Freedom.

11 years ago

Elaine Hunter

Allison.... oh Allison..... great again

12 years ago

Mayank Lakhlani

gr8 yaar i love dip page.... Thanx walter...

13 years ago

madou812j1

incredible

13 years ago

Kelci Cell

Holey Moley. That's the most soulful rendition I've heard - more even than janis, she really made it her own. So much emotion. Fantastic.

13 years ago

Benny Bachhofer

very good performance, Alison with a touch of Janis Joplin......

13 years ago

SuperXxShortyxX

She gave me chills during the entire last minute! I don't think I've ever responded like that to anything that wasn't live.

14 years ago

gemini4807

haunting ...like this sooooo much

14 years ago

gemini4807

haunting ...

14 years ago

Don Quijote de la mancha

incredible¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

14 years ago

kmazzolini

OMG!!!! the best performance of this song that I heard in my life... just beauty...

14 years ago

Ognjen Vuletic

Wow! What a voice! This was really incredible performance!

14 years ago

natdub60

beautiful song and beautiful voice

14 years ago

Juan Esteban Muñoz

powerful voice, amazing

15 years ago

Seguin Gilles

Je sais maintenant comment chantent les anges

15 years ago

dami1622

If there is any person coming near to Janis incredible version of this song - her name is Alison Crowe:))

15 years ago

Nino D.

Allison, when are you coming to Brazil?

15 years ago

mculver7

Awesome cover! Just as powerful as Janis' version but powerful in a different way.

15 years ago

Adam Rose

I actually don't really like the song all that much, will probably grow on me, but it does show Crowes great vocals in a way different to her other performances I've heard

Related Videos

Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson & Kristofferson

Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson & Kristofferson - Me and Bobby McGee