01. Blame It On The Stones (Kris Kristofferson/John Wilkin) – 2:43
02. To Beat The Devil – 4:41
03. Me And Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson/Fred Foster) – 4:19
04. Best Of All Possible Worlds – 2:57
05. Help Me Make It Through The Night – 2:20
06. The Law Is For Protection Of The People – 2:37
07. Casey's Last Ride – 3:34				        play
08. Just The Other Side Of Nowhere – 3:36
09. Darby's Castle – 3:16
10. For The Good Times – 3:22				play
11. Duvalier's Dream – 2:55
12. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down – 4:30			
Bonuses (previously unreleased):
13. The Junkie And The Juicehead, Minus Me – 3:21
14. Shadows Of Her Mind – 3:09
15. The Lady's Not For Sale (Kris Kristofferson/Cathy Pugh) – 3:24
16. Come Sundown – 2:35

Personnel:
- Kris Kristofferson - guitar, vocals
+
- others
- Bergen Whire - string arrangements
- Fred Foster – producer

On the evidence of his first collection of songs, Kristofferson was ahead of his country music peers in realizing that, despite Nashville's conservative political tilt, there was a natural affinity between the country archetype of a hard-drinking, romantically independent loner and the rock & roll archetype of a drug-taking, romantically free hippie. A sleeve note suggested that Kristofferson had been reluctant to record, but while he didn't have much range as a singer, he brought a conviction to his vocals and a complete understanding of the nuances of the lyrics. The songs were so personal that they seemed to demand a personal interpretation, and established the persona of a poor songwriter struggling against despair. Nashville, as it turned out, didn't have much use for his countercultural songs, but the country music community could recognize a good love song, and Ray Price quickly cut "For the Good Times," which topped the country charts. Then Johnny Cash covered the first-person hangover narrative "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" for a number one country hit, and Sammi Smith gave a twist to "Help Me Make It Through the Night" by recording it as a woman's song for yet another country number one. The finishing touch to Kristofferson's sudden renown was Janis Joplin's cover of the classic on-the-road song "Me and Bobby McGee," released shortly after her death, which topped the pop charts. When it was released in 1970, Kristofferson did not reach the charts. By the following year, however, its creator was on his way to becoming a major star, and after his second album broke into the pop charts in July 1971, Monument retitled the first album Me and Bobby McGee and reissued it. This time around, it made the pop and country charts and went gold. ---William Ruhlmann, AllMusic Review

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01. Josie – 3:10
02. Burden Of Freedom – 3:19
03. Stagger Mountain Tragedy – 2:50
04. Border Lord (Steve Bruton, Donnie Fritts, Terry Paul, Kris Kristofferson) – 3:34	play
05. Somebody Nobody Knows – 3:34
06. Little Girl Lost – 3:07				play
07. Smokey Put The Sweat On Me – 3:07
08. When She's Wrong – 4:44
09. Gettin' By, High And Strange – 2:33
10. Kiss The World Goodbye – 2:59

Personnel:
- Kris Kristofferson - vocals, guitar
- Jerry Kennedy, Jerry Shook, Steve Bruton, Dennis Linde, John Bucky Wilkin - acoustic & electric guitar
- Pete Drake - steel guitar
- Donnie Fritts - keyboards, backing vocals
- Billy Swan - bass, backing vocals
- Jerry Carrigan, Kenneth A. Buttrey - drums
- Tommy Jackson - fiddle
- Farrell Morris - percussion
- Terry Paul - bass, backing vocals
- Benny Whitehead, Billy Swan, Steve Bruton - backing vocals
- Charlie McCoy - harmonica, organ
- Fred Foster – producer

Border Lord was a crucial album for Kris Kristofferson. After five years of scuffling in Nashville, he had broken through in 1970-1971 largely because of a series of song hits recorded by others, though his first two albums, Kristofferson (aka Me and Bobby McGee) and The Silver Tongued Devil and I had enjoyed healthy sales, the latter even spawning a Top 40 pop hit in "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)." But he needed to consolidate that success and even increase it, especially as a recording artist. Yet, as is so often the case, he was afforded precious little time to craft his next work. Border Lord, which, like its predecessors, was an album of all-original compositions, was in record stores only seven months after The Silver Tongued Devil and I, and it was his third such collection in 20 months. He continued to draw upon the dwindling store of songs in his trunk, using the 1967 copyright "Burden of Freedom," as well as "Somebody Nobody Knows," published in 1968, while two others, "Smokey Put the Sweat on Me" and "When She's Wrong," were published by his first publisher, Buckhorn Music, suggesting that they may have been written well before their 1972 copyright dates. New or old, the songs on Border Lord often seemed like retreads of already familiar Kristofferson themes.

His interest on lowlife characters, especially fallen women, was so pervasive it practically turned the disc into a concept album. Of the ten songs, six -- "Josie," "Stagger Mountain Tragedy," "Somebody Nobody Knows," "Little Girl Lost," "Smokey Put the Sweat on Me," and "When She's Wrong" -- treated the subject of women in debased conditions, several specifically described as prostitutes. And Kristofferson tended to reuse his allusions and imagery, especially references to the Devil (already the subject of earlier songs such as "To Beat the Devil" and "The Silver-Tongued Devil and I"), who appeared in no less than five songs. The songwriter was almost, but not quite, as interested in the Lord, who was name-checked here and there, and with whose Son Kristofferson identified in the philosophical "Burden of Freedom" ("Lord, help me forgive them, they don't understand"). Among the religious and roadhouse references, the only really new subject was life on the road, which was treated in such new songs as "Border Lord" and "Gettin' By, High and Strange," an indication that this always confessional songwriter was writing about his current life as a touring musician.

Though it consisted of material that was noticeably inferior by Kristofferson's standards, the album was full of poetic lines effectively performed by a road-honed singer and a touring band heavily augmented by Nashville pros; even second-rate Kristofferson was pretty good in 1972. Still, Monument Records had difficulty finding an obvious candidate for a hit single, finally settling on "Josie," which must have seemed to have some of the same qualities as "Me and Bobby McGee," but which only struggled into the lower reaches of the pop charts. With that, Border Lord proved a commercial disappointment, slowing the momentum of a career that had been accelerating over the past three years. No doubt Kristofferson and Monument would have been better advised to have waited until he had a collection of songs to match his early hits; instead, he quickly began work on yet another album, Jesus Was a Capricorn, which was out before the end of the year. ---William Ruhlmann, Allmusic.com

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01. Jesus Was A Capricorn (Owed To John Prine) – 2:26			play
02. Nobody Wins – 3:05
03. It Sure Was (Love) – 2:50
04. Sugar Man – 3:58
05. Help Me (Larry Gatlin) – 3:22
06. Jesse Younger – 2:37
07. Give It Time To Be Tender (Kristofferson, Donnie Fritts) – 3:25
08. Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight (Kristofferson, Stephen Bruton) – 2:57
09. Enough For You – 3:04
10. Why Me – 3:25								play

- Kris Kristofferson - vocals, guitar
- Rita Coolidge - backing vocals (03,05,07,10)
- Chip Young, Dennis Linde, Fred Carter Jr., Grady Martin, Jerry Shook, James Colvard, John Buck Wilkin, John L.Christopher Jr., 
  Mac Gayden, Stephen Bruton - guitar
- Andy Newmark, Kenny Buttrey - drums
- Norbert Putnam, Tommy Cogbill - bass
- "Uncle Josh" Graves - slide dobro
- Weldon Myrick - steel guitar
- Bobby Emmons, Bobby Wood, David Briggs, Dr.John Harris, Mike Utley - piano, electric piano, organ
- Brenton Banks, Byron T Bach, Carl Gorodetzky, David Darling, George Binkley III, Lillian Hunt, Sheldon Kurland, Steven Smith - strings
- Fred Foster – producer

Kris Kristofferson is pictured smiling in sunglasses on the cover of Jesus Was a Capricorn, accompanied by his girlfriend and soon-to-be-wife Rita Coolidge. The album followed his previous LP, Border Lord, by only nine months and was his fourth album to be released within two-and-a-half years, which meant that a man who had struggled for half a decade to get anybody to listen to his songs was now writing and recording them as fast as he could. Not surprisingly, he was having trouble filling the pipeline; he borrowed the melody of John Prine's "Grandpa Was a Carpenter" for the title song and even recorded a cover song for the first time, performing a duet with Larry Gatlin on Gatlin's "Help Me." There was nothing here that matched his best songs, but the overall quality of the material was quite good, as Kristofferson went back over familiar ground, singing about religion, romance, and roughhousing with equal fervor. Especially impressive were the two duets with Coolidge, "It Sure Was (Love)" and "Give It Time to Be Tender," which looked forward to their duo albums. Commercially, Jesus Was a Capricorn can be seen either as a case of record company ineptitude or perseverance, or both. Border Lord had marked a falloff in sales from Kristofferson's first two albums, and initially Jesus Was a Capricorn looked like it was going to do even worse, as Monument Records couldn't seem to figure out what the right single was.

The label started by releasing a single version of the title track, in which Kristofferson described Christ as a sandals-wearing hippie, and, despite the subject matter, pop radio gave it enough play to get it into the bottom of the charts for a few weeks. But the LP quickly peaked in the charts and started to fade, not helped by the second single, the medium-tempo rocker "Jesse Younger," which made no impression. (Meanwhile, Brenda Lee had no trouble locating the album's best song; she covered "Nobody Wins" and established herself in country music by taking it into the country top five.) Finally, four months after the album's release, Monument issued a third single, the slow-paced statement of faith that closed the LP, "Why Me." (Actually, a disc jockey had started playing the song, which Monument hadn't even wanted on the album. Though sometimes described as a spoof, "Why Me" sincerely reflects a religious experience, according to Kristofferson.) It quickly entered the country and pop charts, hitting number one in country in July 1973, and peaking in the pop Top 20 after a slow climb in November. That turned around the fortunes of Jesus Was a Capricorn, which marched back up the charts and reached number one on the country charts a full year after it had been released. Both album and single went gold, giving Kristofferson his greatest success as a recording artist. ---William Ruhlmann, Allmusic.com

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