I love Sibylle Baier, in ways that I haven't even put to words but probably will. I love Colour Green, everything about it. And of course I love Denny and Nyro. I haven't put my feelings about Nyro into words yet, but of course she was a crucial figure adjacent to Joni. Geffen loved her first, then she went to Columbia, then he fixated on Joni, which Judee found irritating. (Joni visited the Heart Food sessions in 72. Graham Nash produced "Jesus was a Crossmaker" when he was living with Joni, then she opened for Crosby-Nash, so I'm sure she heard plenty about her.) Eli is especially powerful. I know Denny from Fairport Convention--of course, I love Fairport Convention, and I know she sang with Robert Plant on "The Battle of Evermore," but I should investigate her solo work. When I first heard "Jesus Was a Crossmaker," I felt something welling up in me. It was so powerful. It is a song that has multiple climaxes, and most have just one if they have one at all. This is subjective, because if you don't feel it, it's just white noise, but I feel it every time I hear it, and I have shared her with others who have felt the same, but while I feel like quality is something I can identify, experience is still subjective.
I really like this piece, even more than I like Judee Sill, and I'm very thankful you imagined it and wrote it. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy her music very much, although I think it has been a bit inflated by being conflated with her "story" and the mythos that has grown up around that story over time. I appreciate her music as music; however, it certainly doesn't attain to Joni Mitchell. Actually, listening to Sill again made me appreciate how transcendently special other singer-songwriters of the time were. Everyone has their preferences, of course, but in my book she certainly doesn't approach the sublime status of a Sandy Denny or a Laura Nyro (a lot of what you expressed here perhaps reaches its peak in the songs on ELI AND THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION, NEW YORK TENDABERRY, or CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT). I agree that "The Kiss" is a beautiful song. Absolutely. I'll listen to Sill, and I thank you for bringing her back into my mind and ears; however, I'll probably choose Vashti Bunyan more often; she, too, has her own story, but without the histrionics. In fact, there are a number of (particularly female) songwriters from that period who in a variety of ways had a similar "vibe", including Sibylle Baier, or even early Janis Ian (the Verve years, such as ALL THE SEASONS OF YOUR MIND or THE SECRET LIFE OF J. EDDY FINK). Of course, I'll go back and listen to Judee Sill's best songs and listen to them again and again for a certain purity of expression. Thank you for that!
I love Sibylle Baier, in ways that I haven't even put to words but probably will. I love Colour Green, everything about it. And of course I love Denny and Nyro. I haven't put my feelings about Nyro into words yet, but of course she was a crucial figure adjacent to Joni. Geffen loved her first, then she went to Columbia, then he fixated on Joni, which Judee found irritating. (Joni visited the Heart Food sessions in 72. Graham Nash produced "Jesus was a Crossmaker" when he was living with Joni, then she opened for Crosby-Nash, so I'm sure she heard plenty about her.) Eli is especially powerful. I know Denny from Fairport Convention--of course, I love Fairport Convention, and I know she sang with Robert Plant on "The Battle of Evermore," but I should investigate her solo work. When I first heard "Jesus Was a Crossmaker," I felt something welling up in me. It was so powerful. It is a song that has multiple climaxes, and most have just one if they have one at all. This is subjective, because if you don't feel it, it's just white noise, but I feel it every time I hear it, and I have shared her with others who have felt the same, but while I feel like quality is something I can identify, experience is still subjective.
I really like this piece, even more than I like Judee Sill, and I'm very thankful you imagined it and wrote it. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy her music very much, although I think it has been a bit inflated by being conflated with her "story" and the mythos that has grown up around that story over time. I appreciate her music as music; however, it certainly doesn't attain to Joni Mitchell. Actually, listening to Sill again made me appreciate how transcendently special other singer-songwriters of the time were. Everyone has their preferences, of course, but in my book she certainly doesn't approach the sublime status of a Sandy Denny or a Laura Nyro (a lot of what you expressed here perhaps reaches its peak in the songs on ELI AND THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION, NEW YORK TENDABERRY, or CHRISTMAS AND THE BEADS OF SWEAT). I agree that "The Kiss" is a beautiful song. Absolutely. I'll listen to Sill, and I thank you for bringing her back into my mind and ears; however, I'll probably choose Vashti Bunyan more often; she, too, has her own story, but without the histrionics. In fact, there are a number of (particularly female) songwriters from that period who in a variety of ways had a similar "vibe", including Sibylle Baier, or even early Janis Ian (the Verve years, such as ALL THE SEASONS OF YOUR MIND or THE SECRET LIFE OF J. EDDY FINK). Of course, I'll go back and listen to Judee Sill's best songs and listen to them again and again for a certain purity of expression. Thank you for that!
No need to choose or rank, Scott, this is just about the beauty of Judee, who many people have yet to be influenced by.
Lovely. The Paradox of someone so broken creating something so beautiful. "The crack in everything."
Sill haunts and saddens like few other songwriters.