*** Welcome to piglix ***

Judee Sill

Judee Sill
Judee Sill.jpg
Background information
Birth name Judith Lynne Sill
Born (1944-10-07)October 7, 1944
Studio City, Los Angeles, California, United States
Died November 23, 1979(1979-11-23) (aged 35)
North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Genres Folk rock, country rock, roots rock, baroque pop
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, organ, bass guitar
Labels Asylum

Judee Sill (born Judith Lynne Sill, October 7, 1944 – November 23, 1979) was an American singer and songwriter. The first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, she released two albums on Asylum and partially completed a third album before dying of a drug overdose in 1979. Her eponymous debut album was released in late 1971 and was followed about 18 months later by Heart Food. In 1974 she recorded demos for a third album, which was never completed. The demos were posthumously released with other rarities on the 2005 two-disc collection Dreams Come True.

Sill was heavily influenced by Bach, especially his suites, while lyrically her work drew substantially on Christian themes of rapture and redemption.

Judee Sill was born in Studio City, California on October 7, 1944, and spent her early childhood in the Oakland, California area. Her father, Milford "Bun" Sill, an importer of exotic animals for use in films, owned a bar in Oakland, in which Sill learned to play the piano. When he died of pneumonia in 1952, Sill's mother Oneta moved with Judee and her older brother Dennis to Los Angeles, where Oneta soon met and married Tom and Jerry animator Kenneth Muse.

In a 1972 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Sill described her home life after her mother's remarriage as unhappy and frequently violent due to physical fights between Sill and her parents. She transferred from a public high school to a private school, where she met other rebellious teenagers, some of whom were allegedly involved in crime. Either during high school or after her graduation (depending on the source), Sill and a man she had met committed a series of armed robberies of businesses such as liquor stores and gas stations. Sill and her robbery partner were soon arrested and she spent nine months in reform school, where she served as church organist and "learned a lot of good music" including gospel music.


...
Wikipedia

...