Forgotten Songs of the '70: Judee Sill

Forgotten Songs of the ‘70s: Judee Sill

Now I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve written Forgotten Songs of the ‘70s but that’s because there haven’t been many songs from that decade that I’ve discovered that have hit me where I live. But a few months ago, I finally tracked down a copy of long-lost folk singer Judee Sill’s self-titled debut and heard “Jesus was a Cross Maker.” When I did, it instantly became one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.

The song begins just like most folk songs of the era with a piano and a voice but this voice is much more different and extraordinary than all the rest. Judee Sill had an angelic voice that suited the song’s subject so perfectly. The melding of her voice and the piano makes for an excellent combination. As the song continues to build, more instruments come into the mix including a layer of subtle percussion that gives the song more of pop radio sheen, which does nothing to dampen the song whatsoever. As Sill continues to sing, the song begins to get stuck in your head where it has no chance of leaving. By the song’s crescendo, the introduction of a heavenly choir of backup singers give the song a heavenly glow that leaves one to wonder why this song didn’t become huge all over radio in 1972.

It’s a damn shame, at that, because if it had become a hit, Judee Sill might still be here. Already suffering from depression, the failure of her first and second album, Heart Food, drove her over the edge. Battling a heroin addiction, she retreated from music and into isolation, apparently at one point becoming a prostitute to support her addiction. She died from various ailments in 1979, a complete waste of talent. Subsequently, her music has been rediscovered over the years and “Jesus was a Cross Maker” has begun to take its place in the pantheon of great seventies folk songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOlcucnoip8

Forgotten Songs of the '90s: Helmet

Forgotten Songs of the ‘90s: Helmet

Helmet will be remembered as one of the loudest rock bands of the nineties but not all their songs have gone down in history. Probably their most overlooked record is 1994’s Betty, which saw the band take a detour from the noise route and turn things down a notch while still keeping the intensity level high. Probably the best song on the record, besides “Milquetoast,” which was featured on “The Crow” soundtrack is “Wilma’s Rainbow.”

Kicking off with a detuned intro, one probably doesn’t expect much from the track until the band comes together in one tight spot and then leads bassist Henry Bogdan and drummer extraordinaire John Stanier to carry the groove. Then frontman Page Hamilton comes in with one of the most distinctive voices in hardcore. The lyrics to the song almost come across as lines of a poem and with the heavy, but low rhythm of the song, it all fits together perfectly.

The song was released as the second single off of Betty and failed to make much of an impression on an audience that was already beginning to turn away from this type of music. But over the years, as Helmet have emerged as legends, everything they’ve done is being rediscovered and it’s about time, this song joins the rest of their esteemed output. The live version is from "The John Stewart Show," circa 1994.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3a8Ow-DoAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Sj4uQWtPw (Wilma’s Live)

Forgotten Album of the Month: Subrosa

Forgotten Album of the Month: Subrosa

About a year ago, I wrote about For Squirrels and “8:02 PM.” Before the album came out, half the band was killed in a van accident. The other half recovered from their injuries, found a new bassist, Andy Lord and toured as For Squirrels for a time and then began work on a new record. Reuniting with For Squirrels producer Nick Launay, the band rechristened themselves Subrosa, Latin for “under the rose” and set about to make an extremely angry record.

When the album, Never Bet the Devil Your Head, was released in the summer of 1997, it was a complete turnaround from the pop sensibilities of Example and was almost completely written in response to the tragedy. Kicking off with “World’s Greatest Lover,” a swirling, loud monster of a song that paves the way for the rest of the record. Guitarist/vocalist Travis Tooke’s throaty, almost Tom Waits-y vocals give the songs a much harsher edge and more of a ‘fuck you’ attitude.

As the album progresses, the mood gets darker and the aggression from the tragedy is brought to the forefront at just about all times. Songs like “Damn The Youth” and “The Life Inside Me Killed This Song” are kind of mellow but very venomous. As the album begins to wind down, everything gets a little weirder with songs like “Madness is Genius By Design” and “Lullaby to the Enemy” which mentions a woman’s vital parts with intensity. The band, drummer Jack Griego and Andy Lord are behind Travis the whole time and never let anything down which helps give the album much more of a powerful focus than most other rock records of the year. The album closes with “Pretend,” which just features Travis singing in a very mournful tone about the loss of his bandmates and friends, while trying to imagine the accident never happened. The final sound on the record is the sound of a door closing, which one can look at as the closing of a second chapter.

The album pretty much failed on arrival but the band persevered, taking Creed on their first national tour. But the more the band played, the less the label tried to promote the record. Upon turning in demos for a third record, the label rejected them and a few months later ended up dropping the band altogether. It later transpired that the label only released the record because contractually, they were obligated to. Regardless of the circumstances, the band kept going for about a year and a half before dissolving around 1999. Travis Tooke ended up leaving the music business for almost a decade before reemerging in 2007 with Artichoke. Although Subrosa never got much attention, the band’s reputation has grown considerably over the years as people discovered the music. So take a listen and discover how fantastic the band really was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBpEQAEvL0 (Buzzard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC0M3HrFJjk (The Life Inside Me Killed This Song)