When
Judee Sill died in late 1979 from a heroin overdose, she had been forgotten for the most part by the music industry at large and remembered by her friends as a talented but troubled soul who experienced more heartbreak and tragedy than was her due: she was an orphan, had been abused as a child, did stints in reform school and jail, was twice divorced, worked as a prostitute, had a previous battle with drug addiction, and not only endured a failed music career, but also the aftermath of a horrific car accident that left her with the residual pain that eventually ended her sobriety and led to her premature death.
Sill was the first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label. During her lifetime, she released two critically lauded but commercially unsuccessful albums that in a just world would have made her a pop star. She was a talented songwriter who penned "Lady-O" for
the Turtles in 1969, before releasing her own version on her self-titled debut in 1971 that also contained the minor hit "Jesus Was a Cross Maker." The more orchestrally adventurous
Heart Food followed a year later. Demos for a third album -- unfinished -- were eventually released posthumously as Dreams Come True. She possessed deft arranging skills and a crystalline alto not unlike
Karen Carpenter's -- able to sing without artifice, allowing the full weight of her songs to arrive at the listener clearly with enviable restraint.
In the early 21st century, Rhino Handmade reissued both studio albums in limited editions with an abundance of bonus material. They sold out quickly and were issued as a double-disc set. This LP recontextualizes all 19 bonus tracks, including live cuts, demos, and rare early versions. The set opens with a live version of her poignant yet rapturous "The Vigilante" for Bob Harris (the DJ, not her ex-husband), followed by six impeccably recorded tunes performed solo at the Boston Music Hall, including "Lady-O," "Enchanted Sky Machines" (a startling song about flying saucers rescuing good people at the end of the world, sparing them the Apocalypse), and back-to-back versions of "The Lamb Ran Away with the Crown" and "Jesus Was a Cross Maker." The transition tracks are beautifully rendered alternate takes of "The Pearl" and "The Phoenix" that precede an early home demo of "Jesus Was a Cross Maker," revealing it as an unpolished gem. An acoustic
Heart Food outtake of "The Desperado" offers her meticulously stacked vocal harmonies (including falsetto) atop bluesy country.
The remainder are solo demos, whose fidelity has been meticulously restored; these include the chilling "The Kiss" (later covered by
Jane Siberry), "The Donor," "Soldier of the Heart," and "Down Where the Valley Are Low," as well as demos for some of the aforementioned tracks. There are new liner notes and photos to make the package alluring, but the true gift here is the warm, rich, thoroughly remastered sound that should make even fans who have all of
Sill's wondrous material seek it out in this format. ~ Thom Jurek