Kris Kristofferson - Billy Dee Lyrics

Love this!

The story of my kid brother, gone 10 years now.

This song is about billy d burns!

This is a song he wrot about Jimmy Henrix i think. <3

Epitaph, Black and Blue was about Janis, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes you are right, kris wrote Epitaph Black and Blue to Janis`s funeral. <3

I was 15 and a half when I turned 21...she was 31 and from Bavaria and took me round the world in the space of an evening!

This is me. I also love having sex with drunk women. They think it's rape but it's just a laugh to me... Love you all from Billy Dee ❤️

You are not a nice person!!

Sure virgin Billy Doyle.

I always loved kris's gruff vocals

Write one verse today ,bang it around and recite it six times and you got a hit and Kris writes six verses for one song,now that's talent.

I had a
friend named billy dee !
i found him this song ..just before
he passed away a few years back !!
////////////////////////////

wow..Hope it was inspiring ..

Got to see Kris last October with John Prine at the Palms in Vegas baby. 79 year old man got up and played by himself for 1 hour, then later backed up John Prine.

Manny Wallace ...wow! Kristofferson and Prine together...there could be nothing better...

Yeah That was a good show at The Palms in Fabulous Lost Wages NV.

Wish I could've seen that.

I am going to see him in Glasgow this year(2019). A lifetime ambition will be filled.
Wish John Prime was also on the bill but that would too much to ask.
Hail hail from Glasgow

SO MANY OF US WERE 13-17 WHEN WE TURNED 21

Great Post Thank You !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember buying this album in the late 70s, and loving this song, though I didn't understand it all until much later. Lost the vinyl album along the way, but I now have his music on CD.

Danalynne Johnson i caught on in the mid 80s. love him even now tho...chek out my music playlist...cool.

I absolutely love the opening line "Billy Dee was 17 when he turned 21" ..... it so eloquently describes the  anguish of young men who want to be adults but don't quite understand the difference between age and maturity.

to the likes of you and me

I must have been about 17 when I first heard this - thought he was writing my song.

Big Brother Billy.

@Eric Dee wow...what mystery...

One of my all time Kris K favorites.

This could've been me, Hell it may be one day. There isn't a day goes by that I don't crave the needle. 

Keep strong.

has he ever admitted it was janis?

It was Janis, what?

No, but Me and Bobby McGee was.

This could be an anthem for PSH.

Thanks. I'm a "Billy D."

I take a beatin' from the world most ever' day and I don't mean no harm...

sküll düggery me too

You are all wrong. It's about a young west Texas singer/ guitarist who went by the name of Billy Dee.. Do your research.

I heard an interview where KK tells very clearly this was for janis, and yet s'all ok with me either way, no matter what- you are all wrong. It's just more fun that way. Then again S because you wrote this on the net, it must be so. hah! Have fun and hit up Smokin' Joe, oh man Texas is a wealth of jams and character. I should move back, yet my woods are tract housing and the good drugs are here, on-line, in spin and suds. Everybody is wrong! I can dig it. Where's my Mezcal?

@RaVen DaWn , Me and Bobby McGee was about Janis, they had more than a fling......I believe when she sang this song it was her first number 1 hit.

I'm sorry for your loss, rainspirit. =(
I know of one in the family who died the same way.

I love this song and want to tell you the truth about it. It is a thinly disguised eulogy that Kris wrote for Janis Joplin. They were lovers for some time. Janis OD'd on heroin, and this song was Kris' dedication to her. Just like the song says, Janis had poked up before a show and fell and died in her hotel room.

Billy D is actually Janis J. =(

Yes It is so, I heard an interview and sorry to orange "S", it was for Janis in thin disguise. What a sweet and universal song, my brother's story someone said and that's all fine and well, yet so much more complex each case, my own brother was in a feud with himself, the FBI an uncaring family and too much damage for a rummage sale, yet it was that damage that killed my brother, not the drugs, the symptom- why he took them why he won every poker and pool bet, played it fair or cheated for no reason at all, the hunger was for swagger and approval, so he died trying so hard to become what he already was. KK makes it more simplified and easy to take, part of his talent, and yet we can feel as deep as we wish about how this applies. My brother's tale is so twisted and my family, I am being paid to write the story. What a world, I'd have dull life, burn that money and have my brother back. rainspirit I am also sorry for your loss, for us both and still aren't we lucky to have known the time, it is golden beyond measure. Perhaps that's the point, to honor the moments that were. I should be dead 100X over, all the risks I take, and still it makes no sense at all. I walk on, better for having known him... another good man down, and I walk on... yes Billy D is actually Janis, KK for JJ... and we all walk on.

I would have liked your brother. I hope to read your story, friend.

Actually this isn't about or for Janis, but Me and Bobby McGee was/is.

mypartner was named after this song

When I took a class in college on literary techniques, I understood why Kris' songs sounded so great. "Getting busted for the bad times and believing in the good"? There's a name for what he's doing-he must have taken the same course (JK). Getting by on getting high on women words and wine? Of the people, for the people and by the people is another literary technique

kris u wrote my brothers life story...(u didn't even know him) luv this man's music great lyricist one of the best