Judee Sill

[IoTheHeretic]

Ever had a love for a singer or a band that runs so deep you keep it secret from everybody? I was this way with Judee, whom I discovered around 2006. I was so terrified of introducing her music to others as the very thought of hearing her works negatively criticised totally filled me with utter stone cold dread. Obsessively protective I was. All very silly in retrospect...

But back to Judee...

I whole heartedly recommend her 2 studio albums, 3rd unfinished album, live recordings and the glorious documentary on her from 2023. Her life story is incredible stuff! Very nice link down below too...

[RobB]

Three years ago Jenny from my favourite band,Let's Eat Grandma, spoke of Judee Sill during a conversation with Max Pilley from the Loud and Quiet website:

Judee Sill

Jenny Hollingworth: I’ve just been really into the folk and folk-rock stuff from the golden period, which to me at the moment is 1968-1973, there’s just so much good music from there. There’s a lot that I’m lucky to be delving into for the first time and it’s really exciting. I particularly enjoy music that has a transcendence to it, something quite spiritual – not necessarily in the actual religious sense, although in hers it kind of is. For me, a lot of music is about connecting to something more transcendent and she is one of the artists that does that the most for me.

Particularly with a track like ‘The Kiss’, which is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. What I find interesting about it is that there is a very surface level reading of it of being about God – which isn’t really surface level – but at the same time she writes it so that it can be a love song as well. That’s not necessarily her intention; it’s almost undefinable, this feeling of love and transcendence in one track. And her delivery, she doesn’t overly hammer the emotions, she’s just like, “Yeah, this is just how it is.”

Max Pilley: Hers is an incredible story. She was surrounded by Laurel Canyon and unimaginable success, but it never happened for her and she just disappeared into heroin obscurity and died. It’s a real tragedy.

JH: It’s incredible. It’s not really shocking, because there are a lot of people in the industry who don’t manage to get the amount of success that they deserve, but when you listen to such a unique artistic voice and so many amazing songs, she’s just totally up there with the very best.

MP: There’s something occultish about her as well, she seemed able to channel something that was invisibly scary and unknowable.

JH: She seems very strong-willed and very intense, in the best possible way. There are stories of her where she was like, “I don’t want to fucking open for anyone.” She gets compared to certain artists within that world, like Joni Mitchell, but she’s not really like that. She’s a bit more intense.

[IoTheHeretic]

Thank you for posting this Rob, it's so wonderful to read about artists, bands talking about Judee Sill. I highly recommend the documentary Lost Angel: The Genius Of Judee Sill, it's incredible viewing and gives a deeply personal insight into a complex singer songwriter who got so close but ultimately failed to make it.

[Franck]

Thanks a lot for letting me know this hidden gem I never heard of! Listening to her albums.

[IoTheHeretic]

So pleased you're enjoying them, she's a very special singer songwriter