Any discussion about Marianne Faithfull inevitably turns to The Rolling Stones. There is an inextricable link, but there is a clear delineation when you look in the right places. Today’s Ted Tocks feature will enter Stones territory in order to complete some obvious connections, before moving into wider spaces that served to define a distinguished career
For Marianne Faithfull, it began when she walked into a star-studded London party in 1964. Her good looks caught the attention of the Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog – Oldham. He felt that if she could sing at all, he could have another hitmaker on his hands. By all indications, Oldham was a bit of a cad, so he may have had an ulterior motive. As fate would have it, the 17 year-old aspiring singer and well-known figure within the budding London social scene also caught the eye of Mick Jagger, but I am jumping ahead a little.
In the early years of the Rolling Stones, Andrew Loog – Oldham recognized the importance of original material as a stepping stone in opening the door to both additional credibility and ultimate success. As the Stones were seen as a rival to The Beatles, their manager saw the Liverpool act rise to stratospheric heights with their compositions and he was determined that his charges could do the same. As the story goes, he locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a room and instructed them not to come out until they had written a song.
I want a song with brick walls all around it, high windows and no sex.”
Andrew Loog-Oldham
The song title has been attributed to the movie ‘Casablanca’. At the age of just 20, Jagger and Richards managed to write a song of exceeding maturity. It offers a melancholic view of the past from the perspective of a wealthy woman with a degree of regret. Here is Marianne Faithfull’s observation.
God knows how Mick and Keith wrote it or where it came from…. In any case, it’s an absolutely astonishing thing for a boy of 20 to have written a song about a woman looking back nostalgically on her life.”
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull recorded ‘As Tears Go By’ on this day in 1964 at the age of 17. Session musicians include none other than Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Just one more example of how in England in the ‘60s virtually any recording with any value was no less than three degrees of separation from greatness.
Here is a video of a very young Mick and Keith.
Not quite a year later, she married artist, John Dunbar. Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon fame was Dunbar’s best man. In November of 1965 the couple had a son named Nicholas. By early 1966, Faithfull and Dunbar had separated and the young woman and her son moved in with Brian Jones and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. Marianne and Anita became inseparable, and soon after this connection occurred, came an insatiable appetite for the drug culture that enveloped the Rolling Stones, as well as an incurable desire for the Stones lead singer. As we all know, Marianne Faithfull became the alleged muse for many Jagger/Richards compositions (See ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Wild Horses’). Faithfull’s upbringing in the shadows of nobility had a positive influence on Mick Jagger. She was very well read, and it was on Faithfull’s recommendation that Jagger read ‘The Master and Margarita’ by Mikhail Bulgakov. This book gave rise to what would become ‘Sympathy for the Devil’.
As we all know, the drug use took a horrific toll on Marianne Faithfull, and Mick Jagger grew to become somewhat detached from it all. The first sign of trouble came during what became known as the Redlands bust, at Keith Richards’ Sussex home, in February of 1967. This occurred shortly after her and Jagger had begun their affair, so the optics of it all became scandalous in every way. According to police reports, Marianne Faithfull was found by police wearing only a fur rug. The resulting press coverage, which sensationalized the debauchery took an immense toll on Marianne Faithfull’s reputation.
It destroyed me. To be a male drug addict and to act like that is always enhancing and glamorizing. A woman in that situation becomes a slut and a bad mother.”
Marianne Faithfull
She became known as ‘Miss X’, ‘the girl in the fur rug’ or as one British tabloid screamed;
SCANTILY CLAD WOMAN AT DRUG PARTY”
British Tabloid Headline
A year later, Faithfull miscarried a daughter and her drug dependency continued to grow. Sadly, Mick Jagger became increasingly indifferent to her plight and the couple broke up in 1970.
For a music fan blessed with retrospective analysis, it is easy to summarize that this was the fallout after a period of partying, and simply pretend that Faithfull just picked up the pieces and carried on, but this six-year period took a toll that has shadowed her for a lifetime. A portion of this experience is captured in the 1971 Rolling Stones song ‘Sister Morphine’.
Here I lie in my hospital bed
Tell me, Sister Morphine, when are you coming round again?
Oh, I don’t think I can wait that long
Oh, you see that I’m not that strongThe scream of the ambulance is sounding in my ears
Tell me, Sister Morphine, how long have I been lying here?
What am I doing in this place?
Why does the doctor have no face?Oh, I can’t crawl across the floor
Ah, can’t you see, Sister Morphine, I’m trying to scoreWell it just goes to show
Things are not what they seem
Please, Sister Morphine, turn my nightmares into dreams
Oh, can’t you see I’m fading fast?
And that this shot will be my lastSweet Cousin Cocaine, lay your cool cool hand on my head
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Marianne Faithfull
Ah, come on, Sister Morphine, you better make up my bed
‘Cause you know and I know in the morning I’ll be dead
Yeah, and you can sit around, yeah and you can watch all the
Clean white sheets stained red
When the Rolling Stones released ‘Sticky Fingers’, Marianne Faithfull was not credited as a songwriter. After some legal wrangling she rightfully received credit as a co-writer.
What you need to remember is, it was Marianne Faithfull lying in that hospital bed. By her account, following an overdose where she consumed 150 Tuinols in a hotel room in Australia, she was in a coma and at death’s door when she had a vision of Brian Jones, summoning her to jump off a cliff. She says she opted to turn the other way. When she woke from her coma Mick Jagger was at her side. After Mick comforted her and lamented that he had nearly lost her she is alleged to have said;
Wild Horses couldn’t drag me away.”
Marianne Faithfull
I don’t believe it, but it makes for a fairy tale ending.
Here is Marianne Faithfull’s version of ‘Sister Morphine’ which includes Mick Jagger on acoustic guitar and the talented Ry Cooder on lead.
Now, let’s fast forward abut ten years.
The ‘70s were not kind to Marianne Faithfull. She lived on the streets of Soho and struggled with a horrific drug dependency which was exacerbated by anorexia nervosa. Fortunately, some true friends intervened and enrolled her in an NHS heroin-assisted treatment program. While the intentions were good, the result was not positive. There were efforts to revive her career, but she was too far gone. Her vocal ability had suffered and her voice become lower. Some critics referred to it as ‘permanently vulgarised’ while others put a more positive spin on it and called it ‘whiskey soaked’.
You can see how the link to her reputation remained? Scandalized and substance abused became her scarlet letter. By the end of the decade, she was living in a squat house with her then boyfriend and eventual husband, Ben Brierly of the punk band the Vibrators. Yet another rock bottom; that seem to have taken place incrementally, occurred in 1979 when she was arrested in Norway for marijuana possession.
Fortunately, things moved to a more positive place when Faithfull recorded the album ‘Broken English’ from May to July of 1979. By January of 1980 the album was ready to be released. The dawn of a new decade was greeted with a new and improved Marianne Faithfull, at least on the surface.
The title track is what really got people talking. ‘Broken English’ was a collaborative effort written by Faithfull, Barry Reynolds, Joe Maverly, Steve York and Terry Stannard. The lyrics were written in an effort to address rampant terrorism, specifically inspired by Ulricke Meinhof, a co-founder of Baader-Meinhof. This terrorist group was a West German far left militant organization founded in 1970. They were motivated by leftist political ideology, specifically focused on the perception that their parent’s generation had not done enough to challenge Germany’s Nazi past. The organization’s activity peaked in 1977 when they engaged in a rash of bombings, assassinations, kidnapping and bank robberies focusing on capitalist interests. This became known as ‘German Autumn’ and the terror cell was deemed responsible for 34 deaths. Faithfull had watched a documentary about this organization that offered the sub-title;
Broken English…Spoken English.”
Documentary Sub-title
She was moved to write the lyrics for ‘Broken English’ and deliver the song in a foreboding style.
The ravages of her difficult lifestyle and debilitating addictions managed to work in her favour. The vocals are comparable to Stevie Nicks who was immensely popular at the time. Music lovers gravitated to the song and the sentiment. As one listens and absorbs the lyrics, the message is clear, and like any good song it resonates over four decades later.
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
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
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
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
Say it in broken English
Say it in broken English
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
Marianne Faithfull, Barry Reynolds, Joe Maverly, Steve York and Terry Stannard
Unfortunately, Marianne Faithfull’s attempt to re-establish her credibility was somewhat damaged by a now infamous Saturday Night Live performance where her voice cracked and she strained to get through. Naturally, recollections Faithfull’s troubled past came back in waves.
Sad, but true.
Marianne Faithfull was undaunted by this moderate setback.
As I delved through the past to find additional connections to ‘Broken English’ I discovered that the song was used along with the songs ‘Witches’ Song’ and ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ in a promotional short film for the ‘Broken English’ album, directed by Derek Jarman.
For the record ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ is a Shel Silverstein poem. (See ‘A Boy Named Sue’, ‘Daddy, What If’, ‘The Cover of the Rolling Stone’ and ‘(Freakin’ at the) Freaker’s Ball’.
Now, let’s explore some cover version. We can begin with a live performance by Flying Pickets from 1985. The quality is not great, but it is too good not to include. This cause-oriented act was definitely speaking to the many social travesties that they were committed to bringing to the forefront of the public conscience.
In 1985 the multi-talented Winston Tong recorded ‘Broken English’. While it did not appear on his album ‘Holy Wars’ it was released as a 12-inch remix in 1986.
‘Broken English’ continues to open new avenues of possibility. The deeper I waded the more intriguing the cover versions became. Here is the American progressive rock act The Mars Volta with their 2014 cover of ‘Broken English’. It is offered in their style, which only adds to the reflective quality of the lyrical content. The end result is an almost apocalyptic conclusion. I know it is not for everyone, but I love it.
Schaft is a side project for Maki Fujii and Hisashi Imai; two prominent Japanes musicians. In their native country Schaft is considered a supergroup in the electro-industrial-rock genre. This cover is from 2016. It was released a short time after this act reunited following a series of primary commitments were completed. This is really good. Again, the essence of the song’s message comes through.
So, how does it end?
The truth is, for Marianne Faithfull, ‘Broken English’ represented a rebirth. It gave her an opportunity to show the world that she was a real person, capable of independent thought. She wanted the most out of life although admittedly, she made some wrong turns. She gambled and lost on several occasions. Somehow, she kept bouncing back. She is a survivor. This is from a 1999 interview that promoted her autobiography, and album ‘Vagabond Ways’.
I didn’t really show anybody what I was really thinking or how my brain worked until ‘Broken English’. That’s why ‘Broken English was such a shock. Because it showed people that there was a real person in there, thinking thoughts and having opinions…and rather clever too. It was really difficult to hold myself back. It may have been the period I lived in. We were really expected to hold ourselves back.”
Marianne Faithfull
While this post is primarily focussed on the first two decades of Marianne Faithfull’s career it would be a mistake to think that she topped out with ‘Broken English’. In fact, the period from the 1990s through the present have probably been the most productive. The list of recording credits, musical collaborations, acting gigs and written works chronicling her life is extremely impressive.
To illustrate this, I will direct your attention to two interesting projects she enjoyed with Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. Here is Marianne Faithfull portraying Pink’s overprotective mother during ‘The Trial’ in Water’s epic performance of ‘The Wall’ live in Berlin in 1990.
This led to an extremely productive decade that concluded with the album ‘Vagabond Ways’. On that recording, Faithfull recorded an old Roger Waters song called ‘Incarcerations of a Flower Child’ which was written in 1968 but never recorded. The song was about Syd Barrett, but as you listen, you can detect why Marianne may have gravitated to the message.
Do you remember me?
How we used to be
Helpless and happy and blind
Sunk without hope in a haze of good dope and cheap wine
Laying on the living-room floor on those Indian tapestry cushions you made
Thinking of calling our first-born Jasmine or JadeDon’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it to me,
Roger Waters
Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about what it might be
Don’t get up to open the door, just stay with me here on the floor
It’s gonna get cold in the 1970’s”
Marianne Faithfull’s creativity has continued to the present day. Despite a series of health setbacks, she remains prolific. As recently as 2021 she released a stunning production called ‘She Walks in Beauty’ where with the accompaniment of artists like Warren Ellis, Brian Eno, Nick Cave and Vincent Segal, she recites poetry by celebrated British romantic poets such as Byron, Keats and Shelley. The same poets she revered as a promising high school student at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Convent School in Reading.
Sometimes life comes full circle but unlike the narration in ‘As Tears Go By’ Marianne Faithfull lives with no regret.
Ted Tocks Covers 
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