Judee Sill is the eponymous debut album by the American singer-songwriter and musician Judee Sill. Released on September 15, 1971, it was the first album launched by David Geffen's Asylum label. Backing musicians include John Beck and Jim Pons from The Leaves. While the majority of the album was produced by Henry Lewy, Graham Nash handled the duties for the single "Jesus Was a Cross Maker", with his production designed to aim for radio airplay.

Songs

Sill had played piano since her childhood, and honed her skills at reform school in the early 1960s where she was sent for forging checks. After a drugs bust, Sill spent time in jail where she kicked her heroin addiction and made a promise to pursue a songwriting career.

The songs that appear on Judee Sill were mostly composed from 1969-71. In 1969, Sill was hired by The Turtles to write songs for $35 a week for their publishing company, Blimp Music. The earliest of these are "Lady-O," which was recorded by the band, "Crayon Angels," "My Man on Love," "Lopin' Along Thru the Cosmos," "Enchanted Sky Machines," and "Abracadabra."

The latest additions to the album were "The Archetypal Man," "Ridge Rider," and the single "Jesus was a Cross Maker." Originally, two other new songs, "The Pearl" and "The Phoenix," were slated for inclusion, but were removed from the track list to make room for "Jesus was a Cross Maker." They were re-recorded and appeared on Sill's second album, Heart Food, in 1973.

Musically, the songs are delivered in an acoustic style on guitar and, for "Jesus was a Cross Maker" and "Enchanted Sky Machines," piano. The songs, after work by Sill and Lewy, feature elements of folk, country, and gospel, but also a strong classical influences. Two of Sill's biggest influences were Bach and Ray Charles. Lyrically, Sill's songs follow a similar theme of finding redemption, and are influenced by her interest in the occult and the Rosicrucian order.

Live

Sill began touring as an opening act in late 1970, a year before the release of Judee Sill. Her first major tour was with Crosby & Nash, and she also opened for Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Paxton. A full opening-act performance, recorded on October 3, 1971, in Boston in support of Crosby & Nash, appears on the Rhino reissue of Judee Sill. The set was recorded two days after the release of the "Jesus was a Cross Maker" single.

Sill did not enjoy working as a support act. She told NME in April 1972: "At the start it was hell. As I walked on stage I used to think, "Oh God I'd rather die than do this. I'd rather stick a knife in my heart than go out and say, "Nice to be here!" Unfortunately, sometimes I've played with rock groups which is - urrrrrgh - terrible, ridiculous in fact. If somebody is ready to hear rock and roll they're ready to have a certain part of their mind or body stimulated. It's asking too much of anybody to suddenly switch round and have another part of them stimulated by something else."

Personnel

*Judee Sill – guitar, vocals

*Clydie King, Rita Coolidge, Venetta Fields – background vocals

*Don Bagley, Bob Harris – orchestration

;Production

*Henry Lewy, John Beck, Jim Pons - production

*Graham Nash - production on "Jesus Was a Cross Maker"

*Larry Cox - engineering on "Jesus Was a Cross Maker"

*Andy Zax - reissue production

Cover Versions & Tributes to Sill

Warren Zevon covered "Jesus Was A Crossmaker" on his 1995 album Mutineer.

In addition, it has been covered by The Hollies, which was featured in the opening credits of the Cameron Crowe film Elizabethtown.

Jackie Leven wrote and recorded a tribute to Sill in 2006 entitled "The Silver In Her Crucifix" on his recent album Oh What A Blow That Phantom Dealt Me.

Robin Pecknold, lead singer of Fleet Foxes, often performs "Crayon Angels" during the band's live shows.

In 2007 Canadian singer Lori Cullen covered the song "Lopin' Along Thu The Cosmos" on her cd "Buttercup Bugle".

References

Category:1971 albums

Category:Debut albums

Category:Asylum Records albums

Category:Judee Sill albums

fr:Judee Sill (album)

Artist/Band Information

Judee Sill (born Judith Lynn Sill, October 7, 1944 - November 23, 1979) was an American singer and songwriter. The first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, she released two albums, then worked briefly as a cartoonist By Barry Alfonso. p. 243 before dying of drug abuse in 1979.

Her eponymous debut album was released in late 1971 and was followed around eighteen months later by Heart Food. She also recorded demos for a third album in 1974, which were released with other rarities on the 2005 two-disc collection Dreams Come True.

Sill was heavily influenced by Bach's metric forms and suites, while lyrically her work drew substantially on Christian themes of rapture and redemption.

Biography

Sill's father, an importer of exotic animals for use in films, and older brother both died in separate incidents when she was young. Her mother subsequently married Tom and Jerry animator Kenneth Muse in 1952.

Sill returned to the West Coast where she encountered Graham Nash and David Crosby and toured with them for a time as their opening act. David Geffen offered her a contract with his new Asylum label. She sold her song "Lady-O" to The Turtles. She was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Graham Nash produced the first single for her first album, "Jesus Was A Cross Maker," which was released to radio on October 1, 1971. The album Judee Sill soon followed in October 1971. The album featured Sill's voice in multiple overdubs, often in a four-part chorale or fugue. She worked with engineer Henry Lewy.

Sill recorded her second and last album, Heart Food. Sill took over orchestrating and arranging Heart Food which included "The Donor".

Following car accidents, Sill struggled with drug addiction and dropped out of the music scene, finally dying of a drug overdose, or "acute cocaine and codeine intoxication," on November 23, 1979 at her apartment on Morrison Street in North Hollywood.

Legacy

Jim O'Rourke mixed the posthumous collection of unreleased material, Dreams Come True. Her two original albums have been reissued as a double CD with a number of live recordings and demos as bonus tracks.

Seattle-based folk group Fleet Foxes perform "Crayon Angels" at their concerts. American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon recorded "Jesus Was A Cross Maker" for his 1995 album, Mutineer. "Jesus Was A Cross Maker" was recorded in 1973 by Graham Nash's former band The Hollies, although Nash had no part in their recording. The Hollies' version appears in the opening sequence of Cameron Crowe's film Elizabethtown. Another version covered by American singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata is featured in the film's soundtrack. Gospel rocker Larry Norman covered the song but retitled it as "Sweet Silver Angels". The song was released on the Essential 2: Agitator CD.

Judee Sill in the Park.jpgthumbleft245pxJudee playing the guitar in the park

Scottish Celtic-Soul singer Jackie Leven's 2006 album Oh What A Blow That Phantom Dealt Me! contains a song entitled "The Silver In Her Crucifix (Homage To Judee Sill)", which includes the lines: "and Judee Sill just stood there/with a gold key in her heart/and the silver in her crucifix/kept warring worlds apart/that's why I love Judee Sill.../and I know I always will."

In 1983, Chicago-based lesbian-feminist singer Ginni Clemmens released an album entitled Lopin' Along Thru the Cosmos (reissued in 1992 on the Flying Fish label) which included cover versions of "Lady-O" and "Lopin' Along Thru the Cosmos."

In 1991, English singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke released an album on Columbia called Left Hand Talking, which included a cover version of "Jesus Was A Cross Maker".

Linda Ronstadt covered "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" but re-titled it "Bandit & a Heartbreaker"; it was released on her Elektra box set in 1999.

A book called New Rock Record by Terry Hounsome, published in 1981, lists a third album Tulips From Amsterdam.

In 2009, the independent label American Dust announced the release of Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill, featuring covers of Sill's songs done by Beth Orton, Bill Callahan, Ron Sexsmith, Daniel Rossen, Final Fantasy, Marissa Nadler and Meg Baird, among others. Retrieved on 2009-17-6.

Singer song writer Tanita Tikaram says that "Jesus was a Cross-Maker" is a song with which she is obsessed.

In the 2010 film "Greenberg," the lead female character Florence, played by Greta Gerwig, sings Sill's song "There's a Rugged Road." Gerwig sang this herself. The song did not appear on the "Greenberg" soundtrack CD.

Personal

Sill was bisexual.

Discography

Heart Food front cover.jpgthumbright200pxHer second and last album, "Heart Food")

* Judee Sill (LP, Asylum, 1971)

* Heart Food (LP, Asylum, 1973)

* Dreams Come True (2CD, Water, 2005). Includes eight studio demos for a prospective third album, various home demos and a video clip of five songs live at USC in 1973.

* Judee Sill (CD, Rhino Handmade, 2005). Contains the original album plus original versions of two songs, seven live versions and a home demo. Edition of 5000 copies.

* Heart Food (CD, Rhino Handmade, 2005). Contains the original album plus an outtake and eight demo versions. Edition of 5000 copies.

* Abracadabra: The Asylum Years (2CD, Rhino, 2006). Combines Judee Sill and Heart Food with bonus tracks.

*Live in London: The BBC Recordings 1972-1973 (CD, Troubadour, 2007). Contains solo live songs performed for the BBC, and an interview with Bob Harris.

References