The singer and actress has died at the age of 78.
I only know of only one song by her but it is one that I like a lot, mainly because of the musical arrangement with the English horn (a member of the oboe family) that accentuates the plaintiveness of her vocals. It is As Tears Go By, released in 1964, when she was just 17 years old.
The song was composed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Andrew Long Oldham, who was the manager of the Rolling Stones. In 1965 the band released their own version of the song with the English horn being replaced by guitar but still capturing the plaintiveness of the melody. Both versions used an acoustic 12-string guitar.
Interestingly, while the song evokes the feeling of an old person looking back on life, at that time Faithfull was just 17 and Jagger and Richards just 20.
Damn, that’s heartbreaking… I love her music so much, I hope you’ll take some time to explore more of her recordings.
My favourite Marianne Faithfull song is Broken English.
I don’t know much about her discography, but I learned of her song “Broken English” from its use in the anime Hellsing Ultimate. She wrote it after seeing a documentary about Ulriche Meinhof of the Baader-Meinhoff Gang (Red Army Faction) in West Germany. Here’s her version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrsv0NVa6k
And here’s the Hellsing version by Schaft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtO__69R9J0
And the Hellsing trailer with the Schaft version if anyone’s curious (content warning for war, guns, blood, demons, etc. -- the anime is about Nazi zombies vs Dracula & the Hellsing Org. vs the Catholic Church. :)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY6jDceaBZo
Lyrics
Could have come through
Anytime
Cold lonely
Puritan
What are you
Fighting for?
It’s not my
Security
It’s just an old war
Not even a cold war
Don’t say it in Russian
Don’t say it in German
Say it in broken English
Say it in broken English
Lose your father
Your husband
Your mother
Your children
What are you
Dying for?
It’s not my
Reality
The speech used to open Schaft’s version is from Goebbels’ speech marking the official start of the anti-Semitic campaign (nor sure if the middle part is). If anyone can translate it, I’d be grateful.
It’s actually “Loog” with two Os. An unusual name.
By the way, when I think Marianne Faithfull, I always think this song. True classic:
Her husband, he’s off to work
And the kids are off to school
And there are, oh, so many ways
For her to spend the day
She could clean the house for hours
Or rearrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady street
Screaming all the way
Lol. Powerful stuff.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is a song I first heard covered by Canadian band The Barra MacNeils. Definitely stuck with me.
Looking it up, I see the Faithfull version is a cover as well: the song was originally written by Shel Silverstein of all people, and first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show. I think it just fundamentally works better with female vocals, though.
She also did the theme song for the movie “The City of Lost Children,” which is pretty catchy.