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Judee Sill - Jesus was a Crossmaker
Identifier
029093
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Sunday 12 December 2004
The Observer - Barney Hoskyns
It was JD Souther, who broke Sill's heart and inspired her song 'Jesus Was a Crossmaker', there was nobody more important in his musical career, which included co-writing some of the Eagles' biggest hits.
'She was light years ahead of most of us,' he says. 'I thought Jackson Browne was the furthest along at having learnt songwriting, but then I met Judee and thought, "Fuck, man, she's school for all of us".'....................
Sill fell in love with JD Souther, in 1971, a Texas-born singer-songwriter who was at the heart of the hip Laurel Canyon clique. A man of impeccable musical taste but an inveterate womaniser, he tore Sill's heart to shreds. 'He went into the chambers of my heart and left it in disarray,' she told Rolling Stone. 'I felt devastated.'
'I remember going to a birthday party for Judee,' Straw says. 'There was a large group of people there, including Linda Ronstadt. Judee was interested in JD Souther, basically he then got interested in Linda Ronstadt. That really pissed Judee off.'
A bereft Sill finally went into the studio, with Geffen okaying John Beck and Jim Pons as producers. When Judee Sill saw the light of day in early 1972, it was the first album on Asylum. Along with 'Jesus Was a Cross Maker', the record featured such priceless examples of Sill's 'baroque-country' style as 'Ridge Rider' and 'The Phantom Cowboy', and her own version of 'Lady-O'..........
'I can barely speak about her without crying,' says 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.'
A description of the experience
Jesus Was a Cross Maker
Judee Sill
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flyin' low for me
One time I trusted a stranger
Cuz' I heard his sweet song
And it was gently enticin' me
Tho there was somethin' wrong
But when I turned he was gone
Blindin' me, his song remains remindin' me
He's a bandit and a heart breaker
Oh, but Jesus was a cross maker
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flyin' low for me
He wages war with the devil
A pistol by his side
And tho he chases him out windows
And won't give him a place to hide
He keeps his door open wide
Fightin' him he lights a lamp invitin' him
He's a bandit and a heart breaker
Oh, but Jesus was a cross maker
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flyin' low for me
I heard the thunder come rumblin'
the light never looked so dim
I see the junction git nearer'
and danger is in the wind
And either road's lookin' grim
Hidin' me, I flee, desire dividin' me
He's a bandit and a heart breaker
Oh, but Jesus was a cross maker
Yes, Jesus was a cross maker
Yes, Jesus was a cross maker
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flyin' low for me
One time I trusted a stranger
Cuz I heard his sweet song
And it was gently enticin' me
Tho there was somethin' wrong
But when I turned he was gone
Blindin' me, his song remains remindin' me
He's a bandit and a heartbreaker.
Oh, but Jesus was a cross maker
Sweet silver angels over the sea
Please come down flyin' low for me