Marianne Faithfull

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Marianne Faithfull

Background information
Birth name Marian Evelyn Faithfull
Born 29 December 1946 (1946-12-29) (age 61)
Hampstead, London, England
Genre(s) Rock, pop, folk, jazz, blues
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, actress
Instrument(s) Vocals, keyboards
Label(s) Decca, Deram, London, NEMS, Columbia, Island, RCA, Instinct, Sanctuary, Anti, Naïve
Associated acts Andrew Loog Oldham
Mick Jagger
The Rolling Stones
Website Official Website

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull[1][2](born 29 December 1946) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and diarist whose career spans over four decades. Her early work in pop and rock music in the 1960s was overshadowed by her struggle with drug abuse in the 1970s. During the first two-thirds of that decade, and with little notice, only two studio albums were produced. After a long commercial absence, she returned late in 1979 with the landmark album, Broken English. Faithfull's subsequent solo work, often critically acclaimed, has at times been overshadowed by her personal history.

With a recording career that spans over four decades, Faithfull has continually reinvented her musical persona, experimenting in different musical genres and collaborating with such varied artists as Beck, David Bowie, Nick Cave, The Chieftains, Jarvis Cocker, Billy Corgan, Lenny Kaye, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, Alex James, Rupert Hine, Metallica, Barry Reynolds, Keith Richards, Sly and Robbie, Tom Waits, Patrick Wolf, Roger Waters, Rupert Hine, and Steve Winwood.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Faithfull was born Marian Evelyn Faithfull[3] in Hampstead, London. Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British military officer and college professor. Her mother, Baroness Eva Erisso was originally from Vienna. She was a ballerina during her early years and worked with the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.[citation needed] Faithfull's maternal great-great-uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the infamous 19th century Austrian nobleman whose erotic novel, Venus in Furs, spawned the word "masochism".[4]

She spent some of her early life at the commune formed by her father at Braziers Park, Oxfordshire. After her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to Reading, Berkshire. As a teenager, she attended St Joseph's Convent School there and was a member of the Progress Theatre student group.

[edit] Music career and personal life

[edit] 1960s

Faithfull began her singing career in 1964, landing her first gigs as a folk music performer in coffeehouses.[5] Faithfull was discovered at a Rolling Stones' launch party by pop music producer Andrew Loog Oldham. Her first major release, "As Tears Go By", was penned by Oldham, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and became a chart success. She then released a series of successful singles, including "This Little Bird", "Summer Nights" and "Come and Stay With Me".[5] Faithfull married artist John Dunbar in 1965. That same year, she gave birth to their son, Nicholas. The marriage was short-lived, principally owing to Dunbar's heroin addiction.[5]

Faithfull fled from the home she had shared with Dunbar and took their son to stay with Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg in London. During that time period, Faithfull started using marijuana and became best friends with Pallenberg. She also began a much publicized relationship with Mick Jagger. The relationship with Jagger lasted throughout the late 1960s, and the couple became notorious. She was found by British police while on a drug search at Keith Richards' house in Redlands, while wearing only a fur rug. In 1968 Faithfull, by now addicted to cocaine, miscarried a daughter (whom she had named Corrina) while retreating to Jagger's country house in Ireland.[5]

Faithfull's involvement in Jagger's life would be reflected in some of the Rolling Stones' best-known songs. "Sympathy for the Devil", featured on the album Beggars Banquet (1968), was in part inspired by The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, a book which Faithfull introduced him to. Two songs on 1971 album Sticky Fingers were also influenced by Faithfull: the chorus of "Wild Horses" ("wild horses couldn't drag me away") is said to be based on a phrase Faithfull uttered after coming out of a coma after an overdose, while Faithfull herself wrote "Sister Morphine". (The writing credit for the song was the subject of a protracted legal battle; the resolution of the case has Faithfull listed as co-author of the song.) In her autobiography, Faithfull said Mick Jagger and Keith Richards released it in their own names in order that her agent did not collect (all) the royalties and proceeds from the song, especially as she was homeless and battling with heroin addiction at the time. Also Faithful appeared on the Rolling Stone's "Rock and Roll Circus" show and featured a solo piece of "Something Better"[5]

[edit] 1970s

Faithfull dissolved her relationship with Jagger in 1970, and lost custody of her son in that same year, which led to her mother attempting suicide.[5] Marianne's personal life went into decline, and her career went into a tailspin. She only made a few appearances, including a 1973 performance at NBC with David Bowie, singing Sonny and Cher's song "I Got You Babe".[5]

Faithfull lived on London's Soho streets for two years, suffering from heroin addiction and anorexia nervosa.[6] Friends intervened and enrolled her in an NHS drug programme, from which she could get her daily fix on prescription from a chemist (pharmacy).[7] She was one of the program's most notorious failures, neither controlling nor stabilizing her addiction as the NHS intended. In 1971, producer Mike Leander found her on the streets and made an attempt to revive her career, producing part of her album Rich Kid Blues. The album would be shelved until 1985.[5]

Severe laryngitis coupled with persistent cocaine abuse during this period permanently altered the sound of Faithfull's voice, leaving it cracked and lower in pitch. While the new sound was praised as "whiskey-soaked" by some critics, journalist John Jones of the (London) Sunday Times wrote that she had "permanently vulgarized her voice".[5] In 1975 she released the country-influenced record Dreamin' my Dreams, which reached the top of the Irish Albums Chart.[5] Faithfull moved into a squat without hot water or electricity in Chelsea with her then-boyfriend Ben Brierly, of punk band The Vibrators.

Faithfull's career returned full force in 1979 (the same year she was arrested for marijuana possession in Norway) with the album Broken English, one of her most critically hailed album releases.[5] The album was partially influenced by the punk explosion and on her marriage to Brierly in the same year. In addition to the punk-pop sounds of the title track (which addressed terrorism in Europe, being dedicated to Ulrike Meinhof), the album also included "Why D'Ya Do It", a punk-reggae song with aggressive lyrics adapted from a poem by Heathcote Williams.[8] The musical structure of this song is complex; though on the surface hard rock, it is a Tango in 4/4 time, with an opening electric guitar riff by Barry Reynolds in which beats 1 and 4 of each measure are accented on the up-beat, and beat 3 is accented on the down beat. Faithfull, in her autobiography, commented that her fluid yet rhythmic reading of Williams' lyric was "an early form of rap".[5] Broken English also revealed an astonishing change to Faithfull's singing voice. The melodic vocals on her early records were replaced with a raucous, deep voice, affected by years of smoking, drinking and drug use.[5]

[edit] 1980s

Faithfull lived in Dublin after the release of Broken English. Despite her comeback, she was still battling with addiction in the mid-1980s, at one point breaking her jaw tripping on a flight of stairs while under the influence.[5] In 1985, she ended up at Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, U.S. for rehabilitation on the same year. She then received treatment at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. While living at a hotel in nearby Cambridge, she started an affair (while still married) with a dual diagnosis (mentally ill and drug dependent) man, Howard Tose. He jumped out of the apartment window on the 36th floor at the end of the romance.[citation needed]. She and Brierly would divorce in 1986. In 1987, Faithfull dedicated a thank you to Mr. Tose within the album package of Strange Weather, on the back sleeve: "To Howard Tose with love and thanks". In 1995, she wrote and sang about the experience of his death in "Flaming September" from the album A Secret Life.

In 1985, she performed "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife" on Hal Willner's tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill. Faithfull's restrained readings lent themselves to the material, and this collaboration informed several subsequent works. In 1987, Faithfull again reinvented herself, this time as a jazz and blues singer, on the Strange Weather, also produced by Willner. The album became her most critically lauded album of the decade. In 1988, the singer married writer and actor Giorgio Della Terza; the couple divorced in 1991.[5]

[edit] 1990s

When Roger Waters assembled an all-star cast of musicians to perform the rock opera The Wall live in Berlin in July 1990, Faithfull played the part of Pink's over-protective mother. Her musical career rebounded for the third time during the early 1990s with the live album Blazing Away, which featured Faithfull revisiting songs she'd performed over the course of her career. As her fascination with the music of Weimar-era Germany continued, she released a recording of The Seven Deadly Sins and performed in The Threepenny Opera. Her interpretation of the music led to a new album, Twentieth Century Blues, which focused on the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and a successful concert and cabaret tour.

In 1994 she published her autobiography, entitled Faithfull, in which she discussed her life, career, drug addictions, and bisexuality. The next year she recorded A Secret Life, with songs written with Angelo Badalamenti. Faithfull also sang background vocals on Metallica's song "The Memory Remains" from their 1997 album ReLoad and appeared in the song's music video; the track reached #28 in the U.S. (#3 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart) and #13 in the U.K.

In 1998 she released A Perfect Stranger: The Island Anthology, a two-disc compilation that chronicled her years with Island Records. It featured tracks from her albums Broken English, Dangerous Acquaintances, A Child's Adventure, Strange Weather, Blazing Away, and A Secret Life, as well as several B-sides and unreleased tracks.

Faithfull's 1999 DVD Dreaming My Dreams contains material about her childhood and parents, with historical video footage going back to 1964 and interviews with the artist and several friends who have known her since childhood. The documentary includes sections on her relationship with John Dunbar and Mick Jagger, and brief interviews with Keith Richards. The DVD concludes with a 30-minute live concert. That same year, she ranked #25 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock And Roll.

[edit] 2000s

Faithfull has been a prolific artist in the new century, releasing several albums that have received positive critical response. In 2000, she released Vagabond Ways. It included collaborations with Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, and writer (and friend) Frank McGuiness. Later that year she sang "Love Got Lost" on Joe Jackson's Night and Day II album.

Her renaissance continued with Kissin' Time, released in 2002. The album contained songs written with Beck, Billy Corgan, Jarvis Cocker, Dave Stewart, David Courts, and the French pop singer Étienne Daho. On this record, she paid tribute to Nico (with "Song for Nico"), whose work she admired. The album also included an autobiographical song she co-wrote with Cocker, called "Sliding Through Life on Charm".

In 2005, she released Before the Poison. The album was primarily a collaboration with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, though Damon Albarn and Jon Brion also contributed. In 2005, André Schneider performed a cover version of her song "The Hawk", and she recorded (and co-produced) "Lola R Forever", a cover of the Serge Gainsbourg song "Lola Rastaquouere" with Sly & Robbie for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. In 2007, Faithfull collaborated with the British singer/songwriter, Patrick Wolf on the duet "Magpie" from his third album The Magic Position and wrote and recorded a new song for the French film Truands called "A Lean and Hungry Look" with Ulysse. Later this year Marianne will release a second volume of autobiography called Memories, Dreams and Reflections. The book, to be published by Fourth Estate, is a more personal history than Faithfull.

Faithfull currently resides in Paris, with her manager François Ravard. In September 2006, she called off a concert tour after she was diagnosed with breast cancer[9] [10]. The following month, she underwent surgery in France and no further treatment was necessary owing to the tumour having been caught at a very early stage. Less than two months after she declared having the disease, Faithfull made her public statement of full recovery.[11]

In March 2007 she returned to the stage with a touring show entitled Songs of Innocence and Experience. Supported by a trio, the performance had a semi-acoustic feel and toured European theatres throughout the spring and summer. The show featured many songs she had not performed live before including "Something Better", the song she sang on The Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus. The show also included the Harry Nilsson song "Don't Forget Me" which features the line "When we're old and full of cancer, it doesn't matter now, come on, get happy" seen as a celebration of her surviving the disease.

Recent articles hint Faithfull is looking into retirement, in hopes money from Songs of the Innocence and Experience, will enable her to live in comfort. The 60-year-old said: "I’m not prepared to be 70 and absolutely broke. I realized last year that I have no safety net at all and I’m going to have to get one. So I need to change my attitude to life, which means I have to put away 10 per cent every year of my old age. I want to be in a position where I don’t have to work. I should have thought about this a long time ago but I didn’t."[12]

On 11 October 2007 Faithfull admitted to having the disease hepatitis C on UK television programme 'This Morning', and that she had first been diagnosed with the condition 12 years before. Recording of her next studio album Easy Come, Easy Go commenced in New York City on December 6, 2007; the album is being produced by Hal Willner who also produced her 1987 album Strange Weather. A version of Morrissey's Dear God Please Help Me from his 2006 album, Ringleader of the Tormentors is reported to be one of the songs featured. The anticipated release date is 29 September 2008.[13]

[edit] Acting career

In addition to her music career, Faithfull has had a career as an actress in theater, television and film.

Her first theater appearance was in a 1967 stage adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Before that she played herself in Jean-Luc Godard's movie Made in U.S.A.. Faithfull has also appeared in the 1967 film I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name alongside Orson Welles (where she notedly became the first person to say "fuck" in a mainstream studio picture),[citation needed] as a leather-clad motorcyclist in the 1968 French film La Motocyclette (English titles: Girl on a Motorcycle and Naked Under Leather) opposite Alain Delon, and in the 1969 Kenneth Anger cult film Lucifer Rising. In 1969, Faithfull played Ophelia opposite Nicol Williamson's Hamlet, directed by Tony Richardson and featuring Anthony Hopkins as Claudius.

Her stage work also included, in 1968, Edward Bond's Early Morning at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in which she played a lesbian Florence Nightingale, The Collector in the West End opposite Simon Williams, Mad Dog at Hampstead Theatre opposite Denholm Elliott, A Patriot for Me at Watford Palace Theatre and The Rainmaker, which toured the UK and in which Marianne's co-star was TV actor Peter Gilmore. Other film roles in the1970s included Ghost Story (AKA Madhouse Mansion) and Assault on Agathon.

Her television acting in the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Door of Opportunity (1970) with Ian Ogilvy,[14] adapted from W. Somerset Maugham's story, followed by Strindberg's The Stronger (1971) with Britt Ekland,[15] and Terrible Jim Fitch (1971) by James Leo Herlihy, which once more paired Faithfull with Nicol Williamson.[16]

In 1993, she played the role of Pirate Jenny in The Threepenny Opera at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. Later she performed The Seven Deadly Sins with the Vienna Radio Symphony.

She has played both God and the Devil. She appeared as God in two guest appearances in the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous opposite friend Jennifer Saunders. In 2004 and 2005, she played the Devil in William Burroughs' and Tom Waits' musical, The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson.

Faithfull appeared in the rarely-screened 2001 film Far From China, which has gained a loyal cult following.[citation needed] She has also appeared in Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (2001) and was featured as Empress Maria-Theresa in Sofia Coppola's 2006 biopic, Marie-Antoinette. She starred in the film Irina Palm, released at the Berlinale film festival in 2007. Faithfull plays the central role of Maggie, a 60-year-old widow who becomes a sex worker to pay for medical treatment for her ill grandson.[17] On 4 November 2007 it was announced by the European Film Academy that Faithfull had received a nomination for Best Actress, for her role as Maggie in Irina Palm. At the 20th annual European Film Awards ceremony held in Berlin, on 1 December 2007, Faithfull lost to Helen Mirren.

Faithfull lent her voice to the 2008 film Evil Calls: The Raven, although this was recorded several years earlier when the project was still titled Alone in the Dark. She has appeared in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan on Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine, entitled FLicKeR.

[edit] Discography

Main article: Marianne Faithfull discography

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]TV.com
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0265717/bio/ IMDB
  3. ^ Confirmed by Faithfull's agent Sara Bessadi on 15 Dec 2006. More on it in "Discussion".
  4. ^ The Times 1999 interview: "Sex God? Marianne's last word"
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Faithfull, Marianne. Faithfull: An Autobiography Boston: Little, Brown; 1994. ISBN 0-316-27324-4
  6. ^ Mojo Magazine, 2005: Marianne Faithfull's interview with Sylvie Simmons
  7. ^ The Observer, 2001: "You know, I'm not everybody's cup of tea!"
  8. ^ The New York Times 1981 article: "The Pop Life"
  9. ^ "Sixties star Faithfull has cancer", 14 September 2006
  10. ^ "Stay Faithfull: A revealing audience with Marianne Faithfull", The Independent 2008-04-26
  11. ^ "Faithfull recovers after cancer", 6 November 2006.
  12. ^ jewtastic.com
  13. ^ mariannefaithfull.org.uk
  14. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0644707/ IMDB Ian Ogilvy
  15. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001180/ IMDB, Britt Ekland
  16. ^ http://www.mariannefaithfull.net/filmography.html Marianne Faithfull Filmography
  17. ^ "Marianne Faithfull shines as grandmother-turned-sex worker", February 13, 2007.

[edit] External links