Heart Food (1973)
Unable to come up with a suitable artist that avoided cliche, terrible music, overexposure as well as maintained an extensive catalog (I almost went with Billy Joel, but he's really fucking depressing), I've decided to take a different approach. I'm going with burn-out artists. Artists that have little to no catalog due to premature death but have developed cult-like followings postmortem (alright, still depressing but way more interesting).
Judee Sill was the first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum Records. She released two albums during her life, a self-titled debut and Heart Food (1971 and 1973 respectively). What I find to be most interesting about Sill and her music is the juxtaposition between what she sang about (and how she sang it) against how she lived her life.
Judee Sill was old-school Hollywood royalty through her mother and step-father, she had everything but she hated it and rebelled. Through her youth, she got mixed up with the worst cats she could find. She used to rob convenience and liquor stores with her friends for a lark, and was a heavy drug user. Everyone is always quick to point out that at one point in her life, she prostituted herself to support a $150/day heroin habit.
She was eventually cought for the robberies and sent to a juvenile correctional center (did I mention she was still a minor at this point?). There, she was indoctrinated with the usual catholic bull and was taught to play the organ. The religious licks became perpetual undertones musically in her work, and overtones lyrically.
Her music was always about redemption, about love and about hope. It was uplifting, balm for weary souls. And yet the life she lived was so trampled in mud.
I'm not saying that people can't be that confused about things, of course they can be. Everyone I know is a walking contradiction of some kind or other. But Sill is interesting because she explains herself. In the reissues of 'Judee Sill' and 'Heart Food', there are bonus live tracks where she talks about herself and her inspiration for her songs. Those interviews, coupled with others, paint the portrait of a woman with no natural sense of morality, which is why she attached herself to the structure of religion.
I always thought that you could feel it in the music too, the thought that this was how she was supposed to feel, and supposed to think, and that if she wasn't supposed to, she wouldn't feel anything at all. There was a fakeness, but and earnestness to it.
I suppose that's what I like about her. How hopelessly hard she was trying.
Sill died in 1979 of a heroin overdose. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the ocean.
I've always felt real awkward about running into exs, especially since mine are always really telling about what I was up to at that point in my life.
I ran into Spider Mike. He was Todd Gaines when we were together, but changed his pseudonym when a more accurate movie about what he did with his spare time came out. That was part of the attraction I suppose, he also being a pop culture junkie. I told him that I'd way rather be associated with Todd Gaines than Spider Mike based on how Tim Olyphant is just SO MUCH hotter than John Leguizamo in their respective rolls, even if amphetamines are more Spider Mike's bread and butter. I've also always thought that Todd Gaines was a pharmacy in general, the movie only showed one aspect of it. He didn't strike me as the type for E, he'd have been into something way heavier and when you're in that deep, you've got everything.
I kinda half think that both are way too obvious though, especially in modern culture. He should have gone further, found some awesome cult '70s flick about retro misconceived drug culture. He'd have been able to keep the moniker forever, rather than waiting for something better than twenty other dealers in the area code have appropriated as well. He says that the fact that so many other people have it too is half the appeal, it makes it a hell of a lot easier for people to get confused and for him to be harder to pin down.
We actually had a pretty ok conversation, even if it did mean I gave up my three hour nap in favor of a cup of coffee. Conveniently, he always had had exactly what I needed to make it through the long hauls.
I suppose I feel a little disapopinted with myself, falling back on old habits. But most of me just doesn't fucking care anymore.
Judee Sill was the first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum Records. She released two albums during her life, a self-titled debut and Heart Food (1971 and 1973 respectively). What I find to be most interesting about Sill and her music is the juxtaposition between what she sang about (and how she sang it) against how she lived her life.
Judee Sill was old-school Hollywood royalty through her mother and step-father, she had everything but she hated it and rebelled. Through her youth, she got mixed up with the worst cats she could find. She used to rob convenience and liquor stores with her friends for a lark, and was a heavy drug user. Everyone is always quick to point out that at one point in her life, she prostituted herself to support a $150/day heroin habit.
She was eventually cought for the robberies and sent to a juvenile correctional center (did I mention she was still a minor at this point?). There, she was indoctrinated with the usual catholic bull and was taught to play the organ. The religious licks became perpetual undertones musically in her work, and overtones lyrically.
Her music was always about redemption, about love and about hope. It was uplifting, balm for weary souls. And yet the life she lived was so trampled in mud.
I'm not saying that people can't be that confused about things, of course they can be. Everyone I know is a walking contradiction of some kind or other. But Sill is interesting because she explains herself. In the reissues of 'Judee Sill' and 'Heart Food', there are bonus live tracks where she talks about herself and her inspiration for her songs. Those interviews, coupled with others, paint the portrait of a woman with no natural sense of morality, which is why she attached herself to the structure of religion.
I always thought that you could feel it in the music too, the thought that this was how she was supposed to feel, and supposed to think, and that if she wasn't supposed to, she wouldn't feel anything at all. There was a fakeness, but and earnestness to it.
I suppose that's what I like about her. How hopelessly hard she was trying.
Sill died in 1979 of a heroin overdose. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the ocean.
I've always felt real awkward about running into exs, especially since mine are always really telling about what I was up to at that point in my life.
I ran into Spider Mike. He was Todd Gaines when we were together, but changed his pseudonym when a more accurate movie about what he did with his spare time came out. That was part of the attraction I suppose, he also being a pop culture junkie. I told him that I'd way rather be associated with Todd Gaines than Spider Mike based on how Tim Olyphant is just SO MUCH hotter than John Leguizamo in their respective rolls, even if amphetamines are more Spider Mike's bread and butter. I've also always thought that Todd Gaines was a pharmacy in general, the movie only showed one aspect of it. He didn't strike me as the type for E, he'd have been into something way heavier and when you're in that deep, you've got everything.
I kinda half think that both are way too obvious though, especially in modern culture. He should have gone further, found some awesome cult '70s flick about retro misconceived drug culture. He'd have been able to keep the moniker forever, rather than waiting for something better than twenty other dealers in the area code have appropriated as well. He says that the fact that so many other people have it too is half the appeal, it makes it a hell of a lot easier for people to get confused and for him to be harder to pin down.
We actually had a pretty ok conversation, even if it did mean I gave up my three hour nap in favor of a cup of coffee. Conveniently, he always had had exactly what I needed to make it through the long hauls.
I suppose I feel a little disapopinted with myself, falling back on old habits. But most of me just doesn't fucking care anymore.