Kris Kristofferson wrote the song Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down in 1969. Ray Stevens first recorded it, but it was Johnny Cash’s release that took the song to No. 1 on the Hot Country Billboard Chart in 1970.
According to Wikipedia,
In a 2013 interview, Kristofferson said the song “opened up a whole lot of doors for me. So many people that I admired, admired it. Actually, it was the song that allowed me to quit working for a living.”
I was just going into high school in 1970. I was a country music lovin’ kid, but I didn’t like Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down. Not one bit. I disliked it so much that for the next 20 years or so, I’d turn the radio down when it came on so I didn’t have to endure it.
Then one day, it came on the radio, and…
I realized the reason I didn’t like the song all those years was because I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND IT. I couldn’t relate to the lyrics. It was just an unpleasant song about a guy who drinks, does drugs, and wanders around the neighborhood feeling sorry for himself on a Sunday morning.
Oh My Gosh was I ever wrong. Evidently, when I had this musical Ah-Ha, I’d had enough life experience, endured loneliness and heartache, and had been around the block a sufficient number of times that finally, FINALLY, I got it. I totally got it.
My apologies to Kris and Johnny. 😉
What is a song(s) you didn’t appreciate or maybe understand until you had a few years under your belt?
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
Lasterday Stories
writing through history one romance upon a time
Escape by Rupert Holmes, often known as the Pina Colada song. When I was a kid I loved this song, but only about a year ago, I was singing along and I went ahhhh. This is not actually a very nice song lyric wise.
I only knew the famous line: “If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain”, so I had to look up the lyrics. Oh gosh— hahaha
I know 🙄