We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
She robbed liquor stores as a teenager. She learned to play piano in her fathers bar and organ in reform school. She spent time in prison for various drug habits…and died young of a drug overdose in 1979. She wrote songs for the Turtles including the tune Lady-O…And she was one of the first artists signed by music maven David Geffen to his new label Asylum Records. Her name was Judee Sill.
Sill released a couple of highly regarded LPs in the early 70’s including her debut self-titled disc in 1971. It’s clearly in the singer-songwriter genre that was so popular at the time…introspective songs, many with religious overtones, sung in pleasant and unique sounding voice over acoustic guitar and piano. David Crosby played on the record and it was produced by both Henry Lewy (who also produced Joni Mitchell) and Graham Nash. The critics loved the record. She opened for Crosby/Nash on a national tour. And the LP sold diddley-squat.
The centerpiece on the record was a song called ‘Jesus Was a Crossmaker”. She wrote it while living with JD Souther and it has been covered by many including Warren Zevon and also a tasty pop cover by the Hollies…..
It’s not the only treasure on the LP…I like a lot of it. You can hear a number of later singers in her voice…a little Nanci Griffith…a touch of Suzanne Vega…it’s a voice that catches your attention and the lyrical content of the songs is quite strong….and yet, she could never seem to break through.
A doomed and tortured soul bares what she has to the universe and its not enough….a common enough tale in the popular music biz
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