The song’s title came from producer and Monument Records founder Fred Foster. When Foster proposed the title, Kristofferson heard “McGee” when, in actuality, [Foster] had said “McKee” (Bobby McKee was the secretary of someone who worked in the same building as Foster).
Written by Kris Kristofferson but originally performed by Roger Miller.
In coming up with a concept for the song, a scene from the film La Strada came to Kristofferson’s mind. “I thought of … a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone.”
Later on in the film, Quinn hears a woman singing the melody that little girl used to play and finds out that [the girl] has died. That night, [Quinn] goes to a bar and gets in a fight. Drunk, he ends up howling at the stars on a beach.
“To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.”