Marianne Faithfull

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Last night I watched a video of Marianne Faithfull live at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn. This seemed to be filmed not so long ago. I'm not sure how I feel about her music. I know that she was quite the scenester in '60s London. Preliminary research leads me to believe that "Broken English" would be a good place to start. Thoughts?

Mary, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's pretty good -- I think you might have seen the Blazing Away video? That was done back in the late eighties, though maybe she's done another cathedral performance since.

There's a good two disc compilation of hers that covers Broken English and after up to the mid-nineties or so -- Perfect Stranger is the name. But this doesn't touch on her sixties or seventies music at all, and I'm not too sure where to begin there.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes, I think it was Blazing Saddles. I didn't realize it was that long ago. No wonder Marc Ribot looked so sprightly in the backing band.

Mary, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

!! I'm sorry, I just love the idea that it was called Blazing Saddles. ;-) And yeah, I'd guess he'd have more energy back then. ;-)

Hey, if you're new here, welcome. :-)

Ned Raggett, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

That was a funny slip wasn't it!

I am new; thanks. Seems like a great board.

Mary, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Broken English" would indeed be a good place to start. Great backing band, great choice of songs, great persona. What happened to her voice? Of course it's ruined.... and immeasurably improved.

Sean, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

two years pass...
I just played my vinyl copy of 'Broken English' and realised the last track isn't on there - there's about two minutes of blank grooves instead. It's listed as "** ** **'* ***" and the sleeve notes say 'The track "Why D'ya Do It" ommitted due to lyric content.' Is it like a K-Mart version or something?

wombatX (wombatX), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:17 (eighteen years ago) link

i saw her live a month ago. she played a small theater (by the way, i didn't like her backing band at all, they were soul less virtuosos), and after the show we saw she hadn't played Why d'ya do it, even though it was on her set list. she said she had seen there was a child in the audience, and she couldn't sing those words in front of a child! it was cute, in a way.

joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:22 (eighteen years ago) link

If any parent takes their child to see MF, then they should know what to expect.

Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, there is a censored version with that track omitted, yes. Broken English, though, is an album that improves in quality each time I listen to it.

Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 30 June 2005 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm not sure if it's elsewhere in her CD discography, but her original version of "sister morphine" from '69 (as heard on the jack nitzsche hearing is believing set) is phenomenal, presaging her own doom.

Beta (abeta), Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

eight months pass...
"broken english" really hasn't dated very well. i have a kind of soft spot for the derek jarman-directed promotional videos that accompanied the lp's release, if only because they date to a time when it wasn't...quite...hopelessly hackneyed to use "triumph of the will" footage in some "it will happen here" sort of anti-thatcherite paranoia way. but the album isn't really that great imo. and i don't much like anything she's done since... i mean, the albums have their moments, and at times her postmodern-weimar cabaret schtick sort of clicks with me and i get into it. but i don't think she's much of an interpretive singer to begin with, much less now that she's lost whatever voice she once had.

what i do like, aside from her great 60s singles, are the folk-rock records she cut around the same time... and the country-rock (well, about as country-rock as say, scott walker's contemporaneous MOR lps) "dreaming my dreams" is pretty fine.

amateurist0, Sunday, 12 March 2006 14:14 (eighteen years ago) link

hey look mary was new!!!

amateurist0, Sunday, 12 March 2006 14:18 (eighteen years ago) link

wybackwhen, tho...

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 12 March 2006 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link

...& 'wot a difference (almost-)4 years make, & all that.

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Sunday, 12 March 2006 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

six months pass...
Marianne Faithfull diagnosed with breast cancer

:-(((((((((((((((((((((((

Still, it looks as if they've caught it early, so prayers and all good wishes to her because she deserves to live to be a hundred after all she's been through.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 14 September 2006 10:13 (seventeen years ago) link

GWS MF

a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Thursday, 14 September 2006 10:24 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

i like this woman! (well the one song i've now heard :-) )

i feel i need to listen to more

Surmounter, Monday, 28 January 2008 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

her cover of kris kristofferson's "the hawk" (which can be found on both the trouble in mind soundtrack AND ambient ibiza vol. 2!) is gorgeous - i respond so instinctively to those warm synths...

The Collected Works of Fun Fun (donna rouge), Sunday, 16 August 2009 07:22 (fourteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

These Decca sides are fascinating: she sounds so scared to inhabit the songs, as though she's aware of how decayed their arrangements sound: like a fruit that has begun to rot and its smell is still sweet but the flies are approaching. "Tomorrow's calling with promises new / I hear the echo of yesterday's blue."

lube and (Euler), Tuesday, 30 March 2010 20:37 (fourteen years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRLlzYhFhhU

so good

lord byron stingily (r1o natsume), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link

a secret life is amazing. dreamy noir-pop shrouded in angelo badalamenti's creepy synth strings. anyone else a fan?

lord byron stingily (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link

cutty i bet you love this album

lord byron stingily (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:43 (fourteen years ago) link

another important factor in this album's greatness - so much fretless

lord byron stingily (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 20:46 (fourteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

I'm a fan---been listening through the 2-cd Island Anthology and it is unmitigated, consistent awesomeness. Broken English gets hyped for the frank lyrics, but we should dwell more on the melodies: "Witches' Song" and "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" in particular have gorgeous melodies.

Euler, Friday, 23 April 2010 07:00 (fourteen years ago) link

four months pass...

Broken English is so great. The title song has earwormed itself into me, but in addition to the two songs I mentioned in April, I wanted to mention "Guilt": the arrangement is perfect for spotlighting her voice.

Euler, Tuesday, 31 August 2010 22:24 (thirteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

new album available in the US June 28th . Advance description sounds promising:

Horses and High Heels consists of four originals and eight covers ranging from Carole King’s “Going Back” to Greg Dulli & Mark Lanegan’s “The Stations.” Four of the tracks feature virtuosic guitarist John Porter (Eric Clapton, The Smiths) while Lou Reed and Dr. John/MC5’s Wayne Kramer each make cameos on multiple songs. It was recorded in New Orleans and features a core of masterful local musicians. Hal Willner (Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg), who also helmed Marianne’s critically-acclaimed 2009 collection of covers and duets: Easy Come, Easy Go, produced the album.

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 20:37 (twelve years ago) link

seven months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnygL9-ZqYE

this is a batshit clip, but that look at the end, the lick of the lips, those synths...it ends up making sense

Euler, Friday, 10 February 2012 23:34 (twelve years ago) link

two years pass...

her new single is extraordinary:

http://www.stereogum.com/1706638/marianne-faithfull-late-victorian-holocaust/mp3s/

disinclination loops (unregistered), Thursday, 9 October 2014 18:37 (nine years ago) link

two months pass...

this new album is excellent. best discovery so far from eoy catch-up

tl;dr, gukbar, morbis detrius (wins), Sunday, 14 December 2014 23:36 (nine years ago) link

eleven months pass...

Just discovered Broken English...and Why'd Ya Do It. Crikey!

http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/12/12/marianne-faithfull-broken-english-round-86-toms-selection/

yugi ex, Saturday, 12 December 2015 18:36 (eight years ago) link

three years pass...

Great use of "Guilt" as a closing-credit track in one of the new Mindhunter episodes. In fact, lots of great period music in the series. Kudos to the producers for not using "Psycho Killer" at every turn.

henry s, Thursday, 12 September 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/15/marianne-faithfull-i-was-in-a-dark-place-presumably-it-was-death?fbclid=IwAR1nChVaWE4ZdSDNV14Kz_HNVh92VSswbqH9yhUBwWixr7zlXA4gtRZR8Hc

Singer Marianne Faithfull earlier survived heroin addiction, suicide attempts, homelessness, breast cancer, hepatitis C, now she’s survived Covid but w/ some ongoing issues. She’s got new music & a book coming

curmudgeon, Saturday, 16 January 2021 20:19 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

Sent my mom that link

calstars, Sunday, 25 April 2021 23:48 (two years ago) link

Interesting interview. She’s a survivor. Now whether I want to hear her recite Shelley and others poetry, remains to be seen. Hopefully Ellis backing will make it work

curmudgeon, Monday, 26 April 2021 15:19 (two years ago) link

four months pass...

Intrigued by this Montreux live album

Gwar ina Babyon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 5 September 2021 04:06 (two years ago) link

two years pass...

out Dec. 8---benefit is because she still has Long Covid:

Marianne Faithfull tribute / benefit album, The Faithful, announced feat. Cat Power w/ Iggy Pop, Peaches w/ Shirley Manson, Bush Tetras, Lydia Lunch, Donita Sparks & many more

Stream the first track from the album today, Tanya Donelly & the Parkington Sisters' cover of "This Little Bird"

More links and info:
https://forcefieldpr.cmail19.com/t/j-e-sjtidit-tytlikjr-q/

dow, Thursday, 9 November 2023 01:27 (five months ago) link

Best wishes for her recovery. I was watching an old BBC Arena tv documentary on Brian Epstein last weekend and finding her quite annoying - as I have done previously - with her description of the music/culture scene of the mid-1960s as a kind of exciting new aristocracy with she clearly saw herself fitting into.

Dr Drudge (Bob Six), Thursday, 9 November 2023 13:11 (five months ago) link

Pretty much every autobiography I’ve read from a musician has some cautionary tale about drug/substance abuse, and hers was no different. However, her recounting of her acid days during the 60s would make you think she’s advocating it.

Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, 9 November 2023 14:25 (five months ago) link


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