# The 1969 song Roger Waters and Kris Kristofferson agreed was a masterpiece

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-1969-song-roger-waters-and-kris-kristofferson-agreed-was-a-masterpiece/
- Published: 2026-11-02T22:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-02T23:50:43+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1969-song-roger-waters-and-kris-kristofferson-agreed-was-masterpiece/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Waters praised Cohen’s ‘Bird on the Wire’ on Desert Island Discs.
- Kristofferson said he wanted its opening lines on his tombstone.
- The 1969 song resonated across very different musical worlds.

## Summary

Roger Waters and Kris Kristofferson both admired Leonard Cohen’s 1969 song ‘Bird on the Wire’, despite their very different musical backgrounds. The article presents their shared appreciation as a meeting point between two songwriters whose work explored the human condition.

Waters called the song “simple, so moving, so brilliant” when he selected it for Desert Island Discs in 2011, praising Cohen and Bob Dylan for connecting poetry with song lyrics. Cohen said Kristofferson had told him he planned to put the song’s opening lines on his tombstone; Kristofferson died in 2024 without a traditional tombstone.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.