“
Hill began performing in clubs in Los Angeles, where she played bass and Harris played the piano in a three-piece orchestra. One night at the Shirley's Bar on Sunset Strip, Tommy Pettier walked in and offered to blow them a trumpet.
Petier, a jazz musician from New Orleans, has a momentary affair with Hill. "The first thing I saw was a charismatic, aggressive bass player." Petyr recalls, "We had a strong feeling with each other —like a fateful encounter. ”
Past Reading: Judy Hill's Multifaceted Life: Armed Robbers and Christians
Text: Zhang Mou Editor: Peach
During the intermission, Hill and Petier make out in a Cadillac and promise to meet again. A lifelong friendship and intimacy developed between them, and according to Petyr, never stopped. "It's like, yes, the best love I've ever had in my life." He said, accompanied by choking, "Like a gunner, I guess you'd say." ”
On their second date, Hill and Petyr went to the Griffith Observatory during a rainstorm. "There wasn't a single person around," he recalled, "and in the midst of the wind and the heavy rain, we took off our clothes and had sex—something I would never have done before." But she knew how to incite me to do these things I didn't dare think about. ”
By this time, Hill had written several songs, including the meditative Lopin' Along Through the Cosmos and Lady-O, which is said to be about Onetta. She received a call from Turtles band member Jim Pence. Much later, she and Harris were at the home of musician John Baker, and she met Pence himself. Pence hired her to write songs and paid her $65 a week.
Soon after, the Turtles covered "Lady-O" and finished 78th on the Billboard charts in December 1969. Sitting on the Cadillac, which she called the Makeshift Home, Hill heard the song she had written on the radio for the first time. "Her songs are a combination of future imagery and soul aspirations," Pence said, "and she sees it as proof that she will be." ”
In a sense, she is.
Turtles
Gigail meets Hill in his apartment in Silver Lake while she is dating his roommate, Jules Alexander of the Guild. They met each other in the kitchen one morning, all naked, trying to get juice from the fridge.
Afterwards, Gigail listened to Hill's performance at barnsway art park. He informed David Goffin, who was preparing to set up the Asylum Records company, which at the time was the agent of William Morris' company. "He was shocked," Gigail recalled, "and he said, 'I've never heard anything like this.' I said, 'I told you earlier.' ’”。
Goffin signed Hill to the shelter and urged Saoser to meet her. After that night on Melrose Road, the two fell in love. "We walked across a narrow ridge with almost no one around us." Saoser talked about their love, "But when we walked together, we were very confident and comfortable. ”
He fondly recalled Hill's charm—once she deliberately woke him up and took him to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where a photographer could make a picture into a poster in a truck. Hill's model is one with a lollipop in her mouth — her favorite photo pose.
Another afternoon, they lay under a huge beehive in Hill's backyard. Fearing a bee sting, Saoser said, "Well, for God's sake." And gave him two tablets of compound oxycodone. She welcomed the bees to stay on her. "She would talk to them and call them 'shit faces.'" The whole time she lived there, Saoser recalled, "She was the only one who had never been stung. ”
Despite being a fleeting relationship, this had a profound impact on the short remainder of Hill's life. When it was all over, Sausser reconciled with Linda Lensday, his former lover at Hill. "(Hill) has been less receptive," he said.
Heartbroken, Hill wrote Jesus Was a Cross Maker, in which she quoted an imagery from a book she had read many times with Saos: Nigus Kazant zakis, The Last Temptation of Christ, to convey her despair. "He's a villain, he's a negative man," she sings in the chorus, "oh, but Jesus was a cross-maker." ”
Hill called it one of the best songs she had ever written, and when she was done, she proudly sang it to Saoser. "She came to my house because she had to sing this song to me."
Graham Nash, who had just become a superstar in his super band CSNY, listened to Jesus as a Cross Maker and decided to make the single. "I think this song is going to catch fire." Nash recalled, "Because of my involvement, more listeners heard Hill's voice. I just knew what she wanted. ”
The remaining songs from Hill's eponymous album were produced by Henry Louie, who collaborated with Joni Mitchell. "Jesus is a Cross Maker" is at the heart of the album, but the other songs are also masterpieces, they are Hill's religious lyrics, with Brian Wilsonian melodies and cowboy imagery.
"The magic ring I made made my finger green / My mysterious rose is dead." She sang in the opening song, "Crayon Angel," which she sang in a slow, southern accent accompanied by a melodious native guitar. "It seems that reality is not what I imagined / so I am sitting here waiting for the truth, with a hitchhiker / go to the other side."
"I just think it's absolutely unbeatable," Saysser said of the LP, "almost the best album I've ever heard anyone make." ”
Henry Dilts shot the album cover for Hill. They met at the home of art designer Gary Burton Topanga Canyon, a comfortable wooden house where Neil Young once lived. The three of them drank coffee and smoked marijuana, and Hill sat on a patterned couch on the edge of the kitchen, sweeping an acoustic guitar with a bevell next to him.
They took pictures outside the house, and Hill wore a long dark blue dress symbolizing the monk's robe and a huge golden cross hanging from her chest. That night, Diltz recorded the experience in his diary. "Taking pictures of Judy Hill in Topanga Canyon," he wrote, "was a wonderful discussion of God's intervention." ”
Judy Hill was released in September 1971. Despite its lack of commercial success, it received positive reviews, with The Rolling Stones' Jon Landau hailing it as one of the most "beautiful" albums of the year, with Los Angeles Liberty's Chris Van Nuys calling Hill "the most important and exciting new female singer-songwriter since Laura Nyro." ”
To promote the album, Hill joined Nash and David Crosby on a tour that fall, opening them. Nash watched Hill's performance on the other side of the stage every night and was amazed at her. "We fly to a lot of places, and if the next show is within 100 miles, we'll drive."
Nash recalls, "She would keep looking out the window and wouldn't talk in particular. You can see that she took everything she saw to heart. If she sees an old man flashing around the corner, you know it could turn into a phrase in her song. Because she doesn't talk much, you won't know how bright she is. ”
On stage, Hill would often add a backstory to each song or sarcastically ask the audience to buy her album so she didn't have to open for the "Snot" rock bands — some critics didn't like it very much.
"I've seen her like this six or seven times, and I'm curious how people can forgive her," the Chicago Tribune's Lynn Van Matt wrote, "and the comments that hum lyrics about Jesus and salvation transmit all the vitality of a hopelessly ill patient to the bereaveds are bound to come." ”
Nevertheless, Goffin had high expectations of Hill and decided to make her a spectator. He took her to a radio conference at Wayne State University in Detroit, where they had dinner with another performer, young Billy Joel. When Joe's producer, Sandy Gibson, suggested that Hill tour with Joe, Goffin refused. "David said, 'Who's coming?' Gibson recalled.
Initially, Hill became obsessed with Goffin and even wrote "David Goefen, I Love You" on the album cover of Judy Hill. "I felt like he was the kind of knight in shining armor," she told Louis, "but I couldn't understand the temperament of another cruel merchant in him." He's not always easy to deal with, especially for crazy people like me. ”
Hill, August 1971, photographer: Henry Dilts. "There's really a kind of brilliance around her." The photographer said.
Goffin invited Hill to Warner Bros. Christmas Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Hill and Petier went together, and the two stood in the middle of a group of Rolls-Royces, throwing the keys to the rambler whose engine was burning to smoke and throwing the doorman's car keys.
Before the show, Hill and Petyr hid behind a curtain and smoked a cannabis. "Our feet were exposed, and we giggled like children." He said, "That's Judy, always challenging authority." ”
In 1973, Hill returned Louis to the production of his second album, Heart Food. "Henry is the kind of guy who can make miracles happen," said Louis Sheldon of The Rescue Band, who played the guitar part of the album, "and he'll let the creators decide everything." She knows the tone of the song better than anyone. We follow her instructions. ”
Hill amplified the orchestral part of Food for Spirits, adding stringed instruments, trumpets, and pedal steel guitars. "Down Where the Valleys Are Low" is a gospel song with legendary pianist Spooner Oldham involved in the keyboard section, while "The Donor" seeks a deeper meaning in the song "God Has Mercy." "The Kiss" is like an angel whispering through the soul, and the song is often regarded as her one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
"Unfortunately, I can't listen to The Kiss anymore because the song touches the button deep inside me that makes me cry." XTC's Andy Partridge says he's been a fan of Hill since her debut release. "I'll be miserable for a whole hour after listening to this song. I really think it's the most beautiful song that no one can write. ”
In February 1973, hill played "The Kiss" and "The Pearl" at London's Old Tune Re-enactment Hall, one of her few performances to be videotaped. Wearing a gray blouse and a bow tie around her neck, she sat at the piano and sang "The Kiss", with every note touching the hearts of the audience. During the England tour, it was rumored that Hill had relapsed on drugs and would often go to the drugstore to buy cough syrup.
Unlike the previous album, "Food for The Spirit" was released for a month but did not make it to the charts. Hill was rather frustrated by the album's failure, and in some of the rumors that were considered exaggerated or fabricated, Hill repeatedly said bad things about Goffin on the England stage – saying he was a homophobic bastard.
No real witnesses confirmed the claim, and Jackson Brown, who shares the label with Hill, cast doubt on David's homophobic claims, even if Hill did. "People were always saying bad things about Goffin, either as rumors or as exaggerations or as nonsense." He said.
Whether or not Hill made similar remarks, back in the U.S., Hill told friends she did. "Her claims about David Goffin were stupid and brainless," said Saoser, "and they would surely be mad at him." He spent a lot of money on Hill's business, but he didn't gain anything. For him, it was not gratitude—it was a completely unnecessary attack. ”
Lens day added: "Judy overreacted. David was trying to help her. I think maybe it's because no one has ever been nice to her in the past, and she doesn't know how to accept people who want to be with her normally. ”
Gigail blames Judy's outburst on her then-boyfriend, Omar Bearden, who has been by Judy's side on the tour ("Food for The Spirit" is juddy's dedication to him). "He was quite negative of the effects." Gigail recalls that he points out that Bearden was jealous of his friendship with Judy, and he did not allow Judy to see Sausser. "He didn't want her to be in the same room as me." Sayoser said.
During the tour in late 1973, Hill was driving a Volkswagen she had borrowed from Saoser when she collided with another car, throwing herself out of the car. According to Hill, the perpetrator was actor Danny Kaye, and John Wayne drove her to the hospital, but police records of the accident have never been found. A year later, she was injured again — this time allegedly pushed down the stairs by Bearden — and she underwent several back surgeries as a result.
After his second injury, Dispaty visited Hill at the hospital. They hadn't seen each other in years. The last time they met was when Hill took Little Dispaty and her brother to a party and smoked marijuana in front of them ("One of them said, 'We smoke peace hemp, friend.'" Dispaty recalled. From then on, their mother forbade Hill to contact her children until they reached adulthood.
When Despa mentioned the hospital, she saw her aunt smoking a clove cigarette in her hospital bed. "She's this kind of cool hippie." "I asked him, 'Aunt Judy, can you do this in the hospital?' Then she said, 'I do whatever I like.' Gigail also remembers Judy writing to the hospital cafeteria, "and she would complain that the food was unpalatable," he recalled with a smile, "and would tell them how to improve it." ”
In the severe pain of the injury, Hill fell into a drug addiction again. In her secret diary at the time, she wrote about taking fastballs (a mixture of heroin and cocaine), codeine, and other drugs. "I quit drugs in Seattle and ended up being an addict again." She wrote in 1975, "Everything is gone. Irretrievable. Maybe St. Judy can help me? Better help me get my arm healed too. It's back to the end of drug addiction. ”
References：
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bruce-springsteen-interview-new-album-touring-e-street-band-1059109/