Marianne Faithfull

[selenak]

Often, singers lose their voices as they get older, or at least partially; some, however, gain them. Along with charisma and personality. Take Marianne Faithfull.





If you look at those early to mid-Sixties clips of her, she's a very pretty girl, the voice is pleasant, but nothing that would distinguish her from a great number of pretty girls with pleasant voices. Here she is, performing As Tears Go By in 1965, briefly interviewed, by the way, by Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager (who'd be dead not two years later).

And here she is, same song, in 2009, voice an octave lower, and one of rock' n roll's big hell and survival stories behind her:

Also, a clip from an interview when her autobiography was published in the 90s. You have to love the way she pwns the smirking interviewer.

If you're at work a nd can't access YouTube, right at the beginning, the interviewer, having covered the drugs and the recovery from same in the first part (which I didn't link), then moves on to sex and is all "omg there was so much promiscuity in your life", and we get this exchange:


MF: I must say, I'm amazed, my dear. Promiscuity? It was casual sex. And it was great fun. Why it is it called promiscuity?

Interviewer (starts stuttering): Err, incredible, oh, incredible casual volume of sex?

MF: Just about the same as a man.

Like I said, pwned. (For the slashers among you, he goes on to say "also, zomg, you write Mick told you he wanted to have sex with Keith", and Marianne F. is all "well, dear, that's rock'n roll, so what"?.)


Her voice now isn't beautiful by any means, but it's uniquely hers and very memorable. Also very suited for Kurt Weill and Bert Brecht songs, which she did an album off; here she's singing the Alabama song:

She also did a great cover of John Lennon's Working Class Hero which I like better than the original. Granted, that's also because early 70s Lennon evokes the irresistable urge to say "oh, stop posing, John" in me, but even so, I think her blistery voice and age give the song a ring of authenticity and edge the orignal doesn't have:

And lastly, two songs she co-wrote, Sister Morphine:

And Broken English:

Comments

[kindkit]

Have you heard A Thrill's A Thrill? It's a duet with Marianne Faithful and Mitch Ryder (another rock-and-roll survivor with a gorgeously battered voice); John Mellencamp, who produced the record, also sings a couple of lines.

[selenak]

No, I hadn't heard it before, so thank you for linking it!