Back in the early ’70s, David Geffen‘s newly established Asylum record label was like a breeding ground for iconic musicians: Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt, to name just a few. But while all of those artists went on to become household names, another talented singer-songwriter who recorded for Asylum during that era died in obscurity, leaving her music largely forgotten for decades.
Judee Sill had the distinction of being the first artist to have an album released by Asylum with her self-titled debut in 1971, according to NPR. Sill caught Geffen’s attention while playing at Los Angeles clubs like Fatty Arbuckle’s, having recently devoted herself to becoming a songwriter following a remarkably turbulent upbringing.
Of course, many of music history’s most gifted songwriters struggled with deeply painful pasts, but Sill’s life leading up to her music career was almost incomprehensibly traumatic.
After the deaths of both her father and brother when she was young, Sill’s mother married a man who turned out to be violent and abusive. As a result, Sill ran away from home at 15, according to The Observer, after which she “fell in with a bunch of hoodlums,” including an older man. A string of robberies led to Sill being sent to a girls’ reform school; heroin addiction and a jail sentence came next. Once free, however, Sill was determined to become a successful songwriter.
Sills released two albums with Asylum, both of which were critically acclaimed, drawing comparisons with Mitchell, Carole King and Laura Nyro. She was featured on the 1972 cover of Rolling Stone and earned great respect from her peers.
“She was light years ahead of most of us,” Souther said. “I thought Jackson Browne was the furthest along at having learnt songwriting, but then I met Judee and thought, ‘F—k, man, she’s school for all of us.'”
A Rolling Stone review of her 1973 album Heart Food suggested great things to come:
“The goal of Sill’s spiritual quest is absolute oneness with God, a fusion that is conceived both as psychedelic pantheism and in primitive, Judeo-Christian terms. The language with which Sill has chosen to express her vision is quite unusual and powerful. Her diction is elevated, at times almost Biblical, at others idiomatic… Judee Sill is a most gifted artist, one who continues to promise almost more than I dare hope for,” wrote Stephen Holden.
Tragically, Sill’s third album wouldn’t be released in her lifetime. Called Dreams Come True, a number of songs for the record were recorded at Michael Nesmith‘s studio, but it was never finished. After a falling out with Geffen, a series of car accidents and an unsuccessful back surgery, Sill slipped back into drug use. In 1979, at 35 years old, Sill died from an overdose of opiates and cocaine in her North Hollywood apartment. While the coroner ruled Sill’s death a suicide, those close to her suspected the overdose was accidental, according to the Washington Post.
As the Observer put it, Sill’s loss was “unlamented and all but forgotten” until over two decades later. In 2005, after mixing Sill’s unfinished songs, musician and producer Jim O’Rourke released the material on a two-disc set, Dreams Come True, which also featured demos and other rarities. The next year, in 2006, Rhino released the compilation Abracadabra: The Asylum Years.
Though Sill might never be as famous as her contemporaries became, there’s no question that her work will live on.
“I can barely speak about her without crying,” said Souther. “There’s no one more important in my musical life: she was certainly as important as Linda or Jackson or the Eagles, whatever our twisted brotherhood is. But it was too esoteric. Judee just didn’t get out.”
Related: Iconic Singer-Songwriter, Who Paved the Way for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Vanished Without a Trace 52 Years Ago
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