Opinion: Remembering Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull died this week at the age of 78, after a full and often raucous life that ranged from the top of the rock world to the depths of addiction and homelessness.
Marianne Faithfull’s father was once a spy; her mother a pence-less baroness. Marianne was singing in London folk clubs as a teenager, and recorded a worldwide hit, “As Tears Go By”, at 17. It was an early composition by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, and she began a turbulent relationship with Jagger that ended her marriage and inspired some of the Stones’ most celebrated songs.
But Marianne Faithfull was famously caught up in a drug bust at Richards’ place in 1967, clad only in a fur rug. She lost a baby, split from Jagger, struggled with heroin abuse, depression and eating disorders, and lived on London streets for a couple of years.
“It’s a great honor to be a muse,” Marianne Faithfull once told Britain’s Saga Magazine, but added, “that’s a very hard job.”
Yet Marianne Faithfull had only just begun. She came back from addiction to release celebrated albums and act on stage and screen, including a convincing cameo as God in the British TV series “Absolutely Fabulous”. She received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France, where she had come to live.
In 2018, Marianne Faithful released her 20th studio album and recorded “As Tears Go By” once more. She turned a song she once sang as a teen who is wistful to find out she can no longer be a child, “doing things I used to do,” into the reflections of a wise woman who has lived through, and learned a lot in life; and has reached “the evening of the day.”
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