photo by Hedi Slimane
This irrepressible and gravelly-voiced British singer, songwriter and actress burst on to the music scene at the tender age of 18 years old after Rolling Stone’s Mick Jagger took an immediate shine to her. Along with fellow band member Keith Richards, he wrote “As Tears Go Bye’ which was a big hit for Marianne and set her off on the road to stardom.
photo David Bailey
It turned out to be quite a rocky road for Marianne, the daughter of a member of a British Secret Service Agent and an Austrian Baroness, but even from the very low points when she touched rock bottom with long battle with her drug addiction she bounced back and was inspired to write one of her very best songs ever “Sister Morphine”. From affairs with Jagger to headlining tours all over Europe and throughout all the chaos of those years when she was both penniless and homeless, her heart-tugging life story profiled in the documentary “Marianne Faithfull : Dreaming My Dreams”, only makes you appreciate her remarkable talent even more.
Our two favorite albums are “Broken English” and “Vagabond Ways” which we can never get enough, and like the lady herself, they both stand up well after all this time. In 2014, Marianne recorded her 20th album “Give My Love to London” of all new and original songs and embarked on a 50th Anniversary Tour.
Happy 69th Birthday Marianne Faithfull, Baroness Sacher-Masoch
