Sunday Morning Music - Kris Kristofferson "Why Me?"

I read Kristofferson's 1973 hit as more a proto-slowcore lament in the sad-sack tradition of Ecclesiastes (from the Bible)than the church-friendly (the books of the Bible are mostly church-unfriendly, and probably for good reason) song of regret and redemption most seem to interpret it as.

I mean, Kristofferson practically moans with pathological self loathing ("So help me Jesus, I know what I am") and mopes like a clingy ex-boyfriend ("Try me, Lord, if you think there's a way I can try to repay all I've taken from you"). And what's with the notion that he needs to do something to "deserve even one of the pleasure [he's] known?" So fucked up, but also truly stirring and surprisingly edifying.

You don't have to profess fealty to a savior to understand the spent desperation on display here, and that simple expression of complete frustration is comforting in the way a shoulder to cry on or a "dude, I totally know what you mean" is comforting--and in the way a simplistic "turn to Jesus" interpretation is totally not at all comforting (or even interesting).

Perfect listening for a Sunday morning spent at home mulling over your failures privately, contemplating how things got so bad, and wishing you'd passed on that last helping illicit drugs.