Along with Nick Drake, Judee Sill is probably the greatest lost singer-songwriter of the 1970s — an artist whose gifts were so great but their demons were apparently greater. While Drake’s legend has taken its rightful place — due largely to a car commercial, of all things — Sill is yet to get her due. “Lost Angel,” a documentary that premiered at film festivals (and was reviewed by Variety) late in 2022 and is opening officially this week, does a masterful job of remedying that.
Although she released just two albums during her lifetime, Sill was a brilliant and innovative singer-songwriter who was the first artist signed to David Geffen’s Asylum Records, where she was labelmates and/or a contemporary of the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, David Crosby and Joni Mitchell. She was frequently compared with the latter (to her great annoyance) and although there are few direct musical similarities, they were both among the most original talents of the era: Her music fit early ‘70s Southern California vibe of her label and milieu, but it was stranger, with deep classical influences, wildly unusual structures and voicings and often dark subject matter.
The latter factor was no coincidence: Her musical brilliance was countered by a deeply self-destructive streak, including drug abuse, prostitution, robbery and ensuing jail stints that began in her teens, that ultimately led to her death in 1979 at the age of just 35, leaving behind just two vastly under-recognized albums containing brilliant songs like “Lady-O,” “The Kiss,” “Jesus Was a Cross Maker,” “The Phoenix” and others. But the world has caught up with them and, in this definitive documentary her talent is spoken of in awestruck tones by contemporary artists like Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker — who is seen below talking about Sill’s song “The Kiss” along with bandmate Buck Meek — Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, Shawn Colvin and Fleet Foxes (who are seen covering one of her songs in concert) as well as many of the above people and Geffen.
It’s a sad film and couldn’t not be: Born in Oakland, Sill came from a troubled home (her father, whom she adored, died when she was young and the film suggests that she was abused by her stepfather) and fell into self-destructive behavior as a teen. She began experimenting with drugs and joined some friends in robberies “just for kicks” and ended up in reform school. The film tracks her fierce ambition to be the greatest songwriter in the world, balanced with her self-doubt and destructive tendencies. She eventually moved to Los Angeles and “lived in a Cadillac with five other people, sleeping in shifts.” The fact that within two years, thanks to covers of her songs by the Turtles and the Association and her own burgeoning solo career, she had not only her own home but her own billboard on Sunset Strip speaks not only to the depth of her talent but also how much it was respected by powerful people.
Yet her self-destructive streak continued even at the peak of her career: Her final spiral began after she lost her record deal (and if you want to see the face of an offended David Geffen, watch for his reaction here to reports that he dropped her from the label after she called him a seriously off-color name onstage). She fell into substance abuse and an equally abusive romantic relationship with a man who some say caused a serious injury when he pushed her down a flight of stairs. She died alone in 1979.
“Lost Angel,” directed by Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom and produced by Lindstrom and Peter Kenney, goes a long way toward reclaiming her legacy — see the official trailer below.
The film will be released theatrically in New York (IFC Center), Los Angeles (Laemmle Noho), Portland (Cinema 21). Santa Fe (Center For Contemporary Arts), San Francisco (4 Star), Callicoon, NY (Callicoon Theater) and key cities on April 12 with a VOD release on all major platforms in the US and Canada; additional dates can be found here.
