Marianne Faithfull

From 1960s pop icon to artistic rebirth after surviving drugs and the streets, Marianne Faithfull's career has been an eventful one. Born into an aristocratic family, descended from Baron Sacher-Masoch, in Hampstead, London, on December 29, 1946, Marianne Faithfull had a passion for theater and was performing in folk clubs when she was introduced to Andrew "Loog" Oldham, the Rolling Stones manager who launched her career Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones, who launched her singing career with "As Tears Go By", the first Jagger/Richards composition. In the wake of this success followed a handful of folk-pop albums produced by Mike Leander for Decca, including Come My Way and Go Away from My World (1965), North Country Maid (1966) and Love in a Mist (1967), consisting mainly of covers performed in a fragile voice over pop orchestrations. Having become the muse of Swinging London, Mick Jagger's fiancée made her screen debut in Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A., Anna alongside Serge Gainsbourg and The Girl on a Motorcycle. The inspiration for several Rolling Stones songs, she gave them "Sister Morphine", before sinking into addiction, depression and poverty, living on the streets of Soho (London). After rehab, she reunited with Leander, who produced the 1971 album Rich Kid Blues(unreleased until 1985), followed by the country opuses Dreamin' My Dreams (1976) and Faithless (1978). But it was in 1979, with Broken English and its hit "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", that Marianne Faithfull made a new start with Island Records, on a musical framework of rock, new wave, blues and reggae. Her cracked voice became a trademark on the mature albums Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child's Adventure (1983) and the cabaret-oriented Strange Weather (1987). Collaborations with Roger Waters, The Chieftains, John Prine and Metallica were followed by a return to the stage in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's L'Opéra de quat'sous, whose songs she covered live on 20th Century Blues (1996). She also worked with PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and Beck on Kissin' Time (2002) and Before the Poison (2004), and invited Cat Power, Rufus Wainwright, Anohni, Sean Lennon and Keith Richards on Easy Come, Easy Go (2008). In 2014, she signed Give My Love to London with, among others, Anna Calvi, Steve Earle and Tom McRae, then in 2018 Negative Capability with Ed Harcourt, Mark Lanegan and still the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis tandem, who officiate with Brian Eno on her latest album She Walks in Beauty (2021). On January 30, 2025, Marianne Faithfull died in London, aged 78.