We all have things that haunt us and her at Rock NYC we have three. Mike, Helen and I go round and round but we end up at least THINKING about one of these:
Joe Strummer
Judee Sill
Louis Armstrong.
I love all three and the subject comes to mind because of the release earlier this year of Crayon Angel: A Tribute To Judee Sill on September 22nd. I am working my way through it, three songs deep, and the obvious keeper is the Beth Orton “Reach for the Sky”. I will never understand how a Judee, a woman seeped in spirituality and faith, could die of a heroin overdose. But I think Orton grasps it. On the best of the songs I’ve heard, “Reach For The Sky”, the uplift of the sentiments are weighted down by the minor key it is played in. It reaches up but not far enough. A beautiful tangle of a song, the sole accompaniment a piano, and you can hear Orton’s fingers on the keys, you can feel the pressure of the music where the promise of uplift isn’t really there: here is how Sill has a certain magic you just don’t heart very often: the tread of the white keys is like the footsteps forward but they are also like the footsteps back.
Sure, hindsite is 20/20 and it is with hindsite, with the knowledge of her impending end, that we come to “Reach For The Sky”. Also, I wonder if it would sound the same way with a CeCe Winans singing and a full Gospel choir backing. Would it feel like testifying in the name of God? The song begs to be covered in a big way. However, what we have is perfect in itself. It is what Conor Oberst once called a tiny diamond in our memory. An enormously moving song and one of the best tracks of the year.
The other unreleased song (again, working from sheet music left behind) is Bill Callahan (the lo-fi bloke who worked with Tortoise) “Like A Rainbow”. I’ve only heard 30 seconds of it so far and I wasn’t thrilled but I will buy it and try again.
The two other songs I have heard are Ron Sexsmith’s “Crayon Angel” which is as beautiful as you imagine it is. Sexsmith is one of those guys I should like more than I do but I just don’t. I saw him opening for Aimee Mann ages ago and he put me to sleep and every since then I haven’t been able to warm up to the guy though I realize he is a good songwriter with a sweet voice. This is a wonderful version. Better, but much more obvious, is Swedish pianist Frida Hyvonen’s “Jesus Was A Crossmaker”. “Jesus Was A Crossmaker” is to Judee what “Born To Run” is to Bruce: the fall back position, the one song that will always be tied to her like the buttons on your shirt. Still, with minimal accompaniment, Frida gives a passionate and important reinterpretation. Where Orton’s song of uplift feels weighted down, Frida’s song of weighting down feels uplifted.
There is something oddly reassuring in Judee Sill’s deeply constructed songs. Faith may be childlike, innocent, or it maybe difficult: it maybe hard to live with, hard to hear the footsteps of eternity and blessing. Sill takes nothing easily, the songs move you but they don’t welcome you, they take work to get to. Here in lies the paradox, and herein lies why Sill was a great songwriter. Her music and her words offer an adult examination on the purity and the lack of purity of faith. Her songs express herself and the conflict left her dead.
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