RIP Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025)

31st January 2025 · 1960s, 1964, 2025, Music, R.I.P.

It takes a bold and courageous artist to re-record her signature song after more than half a century, but Marianne Faithfull was nothing if not brave.

In 1965 she was a winsome blonde beauty with a voice as fragile as freshly fallen snow; by 2018 that voice was cracked and ravaged by booze and fags and the passage of time.

And sounded more appealing than ever.

Marianne’s life and career was like a visual and aural depiction of the times: from convent girl to demure chanteuse to folkie troubadour and It Girl in her youth.

Then the dark years – addiction, poverty, homelessness – and that extraordinary 1979 comeback with Broken English.

I never got to meet her but those that did say they never forgot the experience.

RIP Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025)