The Faithful: A Tribute To Marianne Faithfull Various Artists (In The Q)

Marianne Faithfull will celebrate her 77^th birthday on December 29^th. Fans can blow out the candles a bit earlier as The Faithful: A Tribute To Marianne Faithfull will be released Friday, December 8^th.

She almost didn’t make it.

Marianne came very close to succumbing to Covid back in 2020 and it still recovering. It remains to be seen whether she regain her voice enough to record or perform again.

Fortunately, she has already built a very impressive musical legacy, one that Tanya Pearson, the head of the Women Of Rock Oral History Project and author of Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, has turned into this 19-song collection of covers from Faithfull fans like Shirley Manson, Nicole Atkins, Tanya Donelly and Lydia Lunch. It’s not an all-female affair…Iggy Pop and Jim Sclavunos make their presence heard…but just looking at the list artists one can’t help but understand what an impression Faithfull’s music has had on so many young women.

Shirley Manson has stated what hearing Marianne’s Why’d Ya Do It did to her 15 year old brain. So Shirley (with Peaches) repays the favour with their own take on the scandalous song first recorded on Marianne’s 1979 album, Broken English.

Indeed, six of that album’s eight tracks have been covered here and while they are all formidable, no one surpasses Marianne’s originals.

But that’s not the point.

I’m sure Joan As Police Woman wasn’t trying to overshadow Marianne with her version of Broken English, but rather put her own mark on the tune, resulting in a sparse, intimate take on the song that sits nicely with Faithfull’s.

The same can be said with The Bush Tetra’s version of Guilt and Tammy Faye Starlite’s take on The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan. And while Lucy Jordan and Working Class Hero were written and recorded  by others (Shel Silverstein and John Lennon, respectively), once you hear Marianne’s version, it’s her voice you associate with those songs.

Of course, Marianne had a career before Broken English, racking up a string of hits in the 1960s beginning with The Stones’ As Tears Go By (1964). Back then Marianne was written off as Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, never taken seriously as an “artist”. But now, it can be argued, that if you compare her musical output with Mick and The Stones since 1979, Marianne is the more significant artist.

That point is brought into focus on this collection when songs that Marianne collaborated with the likes of PJ Harvey, Blur and Nick Cave show up here. Vagabond Ways, Sliding Through Life On Charm and Before The Poison are all better than anything on the new Stones album (and I like that album).

Allow me to illuminate a few more of the highlights of this record…Nicole Atkins and Jim Sclavunos nail Strange Weather (with Jim doing his best Lenny) and Adele Bertei’s version of Time Square is suitably dramatic, thanks in part, to longtime Marianne guitarist Barry Reynolds.

And it makes me very happy to see that Lydia Lunch is clear and present, sneering her way through Love, Life And Money…a tune originally recorded by Little Willie John.

There is so much good music and good will associated with this project. Any profits are earmarked to go to Marianne to help with her continued recovery.

So do yourself a favour and put your money where it will do some good and then dig deep into the musical legacy that Marianne Faithfull has created. And know that Marianne Faithfull really matters.

Marty Duda

The Faithful: A Tribute To Marianne Faithfull is released Friday, December 8th. Click here for more info

Track List:

Disc One – Side A

Tracy Bonham – “As Tears Go By”
Tanya Donelly & the Parkington Sisters – “This Little Bird”
Josie Cotton – “Summer Nights”
Sylvia Black – “Sister Morphine”
Cat Power & Iggy Pop – “Working Class Hero”

Disc One – Side B

Shirley Manson & Peaches – “Why D’Ya Do It”
Pom Poms – “Brain Drain”
Bush Tetras – “Guilt”
Joan As Policewoman – “Broken English”
Tammy Faye Starlite & Barry Reynolds – “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan”

Disc Two – Side C

Honeychild Coleman – “Over Here (No Time For Justice)”
Adele Bertei – “Times Square”
Nicole Atkins & Jim Sclavunos – “Strange Weather”
Lydia Lunch – “Love, Life, and Money”
Cynthia Ross (the B Girls) & Tim Bovaconti – “Vagabond Ways”

Disc Two – Side D

Donita Sparks – “Sliding Through Life on Charm”
Miss Guy – “Sex With Strangers”
FaithNYC – “Kissin’ Time”
Feminine Aggression – “Before The Poison”