Thursday 8th December
Another artist you may have never heard of, and maybe for good reason. She only made 2 albums and both sold miserably during her lifetime. I bought them at the time and played them constantly, though nobody I knew had heard of her.
Although born to fairly wealthy parents in California, Judee fell into bad company and drug addiction. She was involved in armed robberies, prostitution and stealing and forging cheques. However…
She had taught herself piano and guitar and was writing her own songs and occasionally playing in bars. Somehow she came to the notice of Graham Nash and David Crosby and opened for them a few times. At the time she was turning tricks and living in a car. She sold her song ‘Lady-O’ to The Turtles who had a hit with it and then she miraculously got signed to the newly formed Geffen Records. Her self-titled album was actually the first release on this hip new label. Graham Nash produced the single ‘Jesus was a Crossmaker’ and Henry Lewy worked with her on the record, layering her voice in tiers and introducing quite complex orchestrations. Judee’s music was heavily influenced by Bach but the songs are semi-religious and feature personal redemption and some sort of union with a God-like figure.
She took control of production of her second album Heart Food which was much more orchestral and almost a series of hymns. Both albums are superb, her voice angelic and distinctive. Despite excellent reviews both records sold poorly. She slipped back into heroin addiction and fell out of the music scene and lost her record contract.
Judee died of a drug overdose in 1979, penniless and on her own. A third album of demos was released a few years ago, but it is poor compared to her two masterpieces. A live at the BBC album is much better but somehow these acoustic versions of her songs lack the power of the studio versions.
Her two albums ‘Judee Sill’ and ‘Heart Food’ are an essential part of my record collection, and of course of late she has achieved cult status and is cited as an influence by many young artists; such a pity it has all happened far too late.
