in the recording sessions, which were held at Monument Recording Studio. Kristofferson did not have a backing band so Foster gathered musicians known to him. Johnny Cash wrote the album's liner notes. Compositions The album opens with "Blame It On The Stones", which references the negative perception that the older generations had of The Rolling Stones. The song references the band's 1966 song "Mother's Little Helper". "To Beat the Devil" includes an introduction spoken by Kristofferson, who dedicates the song to Johnny Cash and June Carter. The song depicts a struggling songwriter who meets the Devil at a bar. The character ultimately rejects the Devil's negative message and continues to pursue success in music. "Me and Bobby McGee" tells the story of a road trip shared by two lovers, who first travel from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and then until the woman leaves the man in Salinas, California. Foster, who shared an office building with Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, visited the couple to discuss arrangements for a song. Boudleaux Bryant then jokingly accused him of creating an excuse to see his secretary, Barbara "Bobby" McKee. Foster failed to recognize the name, but upon Bryant's insistence about "Bobby McKee" he said; "Oh, yea. Haven't you heard of me and Bobby McKee?" Foster then suggested Kristofferson, who was suffering a writer's block, to attempt a road song about "Me and Bobby McKee". Kristofferson misheard the surname as "McGee". Additionally inspired by Federico Fellini's La Strada, Kristofferson wrote the song while flying helicopters around the Gulf of Mexico. The story's setting was provided by Kristofferson's own trips between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, while the line about windshield wipers occurred to him while driving to the airport on his way back from New Orleans to Nashville. A month after his departure, Kristofferson returned with the finished song that he recorded on a demo accompanied only by Billy Swan on the organ. Foster was also given writing co-credit. "Me and Bobby McGee" was first recorded in 1969 by Roger Miller, whose version peaked at number 12 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles. "The Best of All Possible Worlds" was inspired by Kristofferson's experience of being arrested. In the song, he observes police officers' mistreatment of black people and the poor, and references Voltaire's novella Candide, in which Voltaire satirized Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's claim of the "best of all possible worlds". Kristofferson protested Monument Records'