This fellow is lauded by many who would know about such things as a singer-songwriter fit to rank among the very best. I'm not personally well enough acquainted with his stuff to make a judgement on his talent either way. But this alone, from his eponymous 1970 debut, argues the case for him pretty well. Of course the song is highly, if not almost entirely indebted to Cohen and Cash but there's nothing wrong with doffing your cap to the very greatest, especially if the end product is as good as this. The lyrics are all Kristofferson's and utterly wonderful. This is pure sixties turns seventies psychic melodrama.
'Casey joins the hollow sound of silent people walking down
The stairway to the subway in the shadows down below
Following their footsteps through the neon-darkened corridors
Of silent desperation, never speakin' to a soul
The poison air he's breathin' has the dirty smell of dying'
Cause it's never seen the sunshine and it's never felt the rain
But Casey minds the arrows and ignores the fatal echoes
Of the clickin' of the turnstiles and the rattle of his chains.' ........ Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the Golden Crown
For something wet to wipe away the chill that's on his bone
Seeing his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men
Who search for any thing they can to keep from goin' home
Standin' in the corner Casey drinks his pint of bitter
Never glancing in the mirror at the people passing by
Then he stumbles as he's leaving and he wonders if the reason
Is the beer that's in his belly, or the tear that's in his eye.'
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