Marianne Faithfull
"My riches can't buy everything, I want to hear the children sing,
All I hear is the sound, of rain falling on the ground,
I sit and watch as tears go by..."
Marianne with Mick Jagger
In a recent promotional shot
Four Decades of Survival
She has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, in a wide variety of genres, including: Beck, David Bowie, The Chieftains, Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Lenny Kaye, Emmylou Harris, Metallica, Keith Richards, Tom Waits, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) and Steve Winwood - to name but a few.
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London, December 1946, to father Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, a British military officer and college professor, and mother Baroness Eva Erisso, originally from Vienna with noble roots from the Habsburg Dynasty. She was a ballerina in her childhood years and, as a teenager, was a member of the Progress Theatre student group at St. Joseph's Convent School.
Marianne began her musical career as a folk singer, working in coffee houses, and was discovered by music producer Andrew Loog Oldham at a Rolling Stones launch party. Her first single, "As Tears Go By," written by Oldham, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, was a success, which lead to a string of commercial hits.
She met and married artist John Dunbar in 1965, but left him less than a year later with her son, Nicholas, because of Dunbar's heroine use, and moved in with the late Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. It was here she began her much publicized relationship with Mick Jagger, and it was at this time that she began using marijuana and became addicted to cocaine, which led to the miscarriage of her daughter, whom she had named Corrina.
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Marianne stated in an interview that her attempted suicide by overdose was as "revenge" for Brian Jones' death being taken so lightly.
In the rock opera "The Wall."
The Streets of Soho
In 1970, Marianne dissolved her relationship with Jagger, lost custody of her son, and her mother attempted suicide. Her personal and professional life went into steady decline. One of her few public appearances during this time was with David Bowie singing the Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe."
She spent two years living on the streets of Soho, London, addicted to heroine and suffering from anorexia nervosa. Attempts by friends to intervene and enroll her into drug programs resulted in notorious failure. Producer Mike Leander attempted to revive her career by producing part of her album, "Rich Kid Blues," but the project was shelved until 1985. Severe laryngitis and persistent cocaine use had, by now, altered the sound of Marianne's voice, leaving it lowered and cracked, prompting journalist John Jones of the Sunday Times (London) to remark that she had "permanently vulgarized her voice," while the new sound was praised as "whiskey-soaked" by other critics.
In 1975 she released the country-influenced album, "Dreamin' My Dreams" which went to the top of the Irish charts, and moved into a squat -with no hot water or electricity- in Chelsea with then-boyfriend Ben Brierly, formerly of The Vibrators. By 1979 her career had returned in full force, despite (or because of) a marijuana arrest in Norway, with the release of the critically acclaimed album, "Broken English." Due to the explosion of punk at the time, and her marriage to Brierly, the album was filled with pop, tango, punk, reggae, (and even an early form of rap) -influenced music and lyrics, and remains the favorite of many fans today. Broken English was also the album which first revealed her new raspy sound: the melodic vocals of her early years were replaced with a deep, hard-living-edged voice.
Despite the success of this record, Marianne -now living in Dublin- continued to battle with substance abuse, a struggle which continued into the mid 1980s. She broke her jaw tripping down a flight of stairs and wound up at the Hazelton Clinic in Minnisota, and then the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts for rehabilitation. She and Brierly were divirced by 1986. Through these times she continued to make music; She performed "Ballad of a Soldier's Wife," on Hal Wilner's tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, and released her critically successful Strange Weather, also produced by Hal Wilner.
In the 1990s she performed as Pink's over-protective mother in Roger Waters' Berlin performance of the rock opera, The Wall, and soon afterward released the live album Blazing Away, which featured live performances of many of her earlier hits. Fascinated with the music of Weimar-era Germany, she released a recording of The Seven Deadly Sins and performed in The Threepenny Opera. This lead to the release of her album, Twentieth Century Blues, with an accompanying concert and cabaret tour.
In 1994 Marianne published her autobiography, Faithfull, in which she candidly speaks of her life, career, drugs, and bisexuality. In 1995 she recorded the album, A Secret Life, and in 1997 contributed the haunting vocals to Metallica's " The Memory Remains," and appeared in the video.
In 1998 Faithfull released A Perfect Stranger: The Island Anthology, a two-disc chronicle of her years with Island Records. And her 1999 DVD Dreaming My Dreams contains material about her childhood, parents, historical video footage as far back as 1964, interviews with artistes and friends who have known her since childhood, sections on her relationships with John Dunbar and Mick Jagger, an interview with Keith Richards and 30-minutes of live concert footage. The release of this DVD ranked her #25 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll.
Four Decades Later
The new millennium has seen a very busy Marianne Faithful:
- The release of Vagabond Ways (2000), featuring collaborations with Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Roger Waters and Frank McGuiness.
- Contributing vocals to "Love Got Lost" on Joe Jackson's album, Night and Day ll.
- Kissin' Time (2002) with songs written by Beck, Billy Corgan and several others.
- Before the Poison (2005), a collaboration album with P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave.
- In 2006, she called off a concert tour after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent treatment and surgery in Paris, France (where she now lives), and reported a full recovery. She returned to the stage in 2007 with a show titled, Songs of Innocence and Experience.
- A 2007 collaboration with British singer/songwriter, Patrick Wolf, on the duet "Magpie."
- 2007, wrote and recorded a new song for the French film, Truands, called "A Lean and Hungry Look."
- 2007, published a second volume autobiography titled, "Memories, Dreams & Reflections."
- On October 11, 2007, she announced she had hepatitis C, and that she'd first been diagnosed with the condition 12 years earlier.
- Her next studio album, Easy Come, Easy Go, began in December 2007, in New York City, and was projected for release in September 2008.
- On May 27, 2008, Faithfull released the following blog statement with the headline: "Tour Dates Cancelled." "Due to general mental, physical and nervous exhaustion doctors have ordered Marianne Faithfull to immediately cease all work activities and recuperate. The treatment and recovery should last around six months, we all wish Marianne a speedy recuperation period and look forward to her new album release and tour in 2009."
- Marianne Faithfull's band website says the film in which she starred, Irina Palm, opened in June in the UK, and has already won the 'Liv Ullman' best actress prize for Marianne's performance, two awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, and Best European Film at the David di Donatello awards.
Clearly, Ms. Faithfull has been enjoying her current resurgence and no doubt is thankful to still be so in demand. She seems determined to squeeze-in every good opportunity that comes her way, enjoy every minute of it, and not - at least not this time - take any of it for granted.
I would like to wish her good health and a strong recovery, and would also like to say; Please, Ms. Faithfull, do not feel pressured to hurry in your recuperation. Your fans, and the world, will wait for you.
