MUSES - Marianne Faithful

Famous Muses (& Girlfriends) in Rock Music Pt. 36

MUSE: Marianne Faithfull (full name Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull)

Marianne was born December 29th, 1946 in Hampstead, England to Robert Faithfull and Eva von Sacher-Mosach. Through Eva’s family lineage, Marianne has aristocratic roots of Austrian nobility. Her great, great uncle Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is the author of the infamous novel Venus in Furs (1870). When Marianne was 6 years old, her parents divorced and she spent the rest of her youth with her mom in Reading. Not long afterwards, Marianne was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which took her years to successfully be cured of. Despite her mother’s family lineage being Jewish, Marianne attended St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Convent School as a teenager and considered becoming a nun. When she was 17 she began performing in local theatre productions and singing in coffeehouses. Only months later in 1964, she was discovered by rock music producer and manager Andrew Loog Oldham. Oldham quickly got her signed to a record contract, and had Keith Richards and Mick Jagger compose her first single and trademark song, ‘As Tears Go By.’ Marianne then had more success with the singles ‘Come Stay with Me,’ ‘This Little Bird,’ ‘Summer Nights,’ ‘Go Away from My World,’ and ‘Something Better.’ In 1966, she crossed over into acting including the films

Made in USA (1966), Anna (1967), Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) 

and the short film Lucifer Rising (1972). She made movie history as the first person to ever say the word ‘fuck’ in a major film release with I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967). Her on stage performances include ‘Three Sisters’ (1967) and ‘Hamlet’ (1969). During the 1970s, her career took a dive from drug addiction, but bounced back with the new wave album ‘Broken English’ (1979), which soared to success on the charts and critically. The title track and ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ from the album were particularly favoured as well.

Marianne’s not only an accomplished music artist and actress, but also one of the most famous muses in rock music. To the point where her relationships almost overshadowed her work. The year she was signed to Decca Records, Marianne began dating artist John Dunbar when she was 17 and he 21. Less than a year later they married on May 6th, 1965, and had a son named Nicholas in November. Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon was John’s best man at their wedding. The marriage was very short-lived because Marianne started becoming a bit too familiar with the Rolling Stones. In her 1994 self-titled memoir, Marianne revealed that she hooked up with Brian Jones and Keith Richards before officially becoming Mick Jagger’s girlfriend. She claims that Brian was a great guy and musician, but an awkward lover, so they only made out. Keith was apparently the best time she ever had in bed (:O), though he was the one who suggested she go out with Mick. Keith was more interested in Brian’s girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, who coincidentally became Marianne’s best friend. (Marianne also suggested that for a brief period in the early 1970s, she and Anita were FWB as well. Hot.) 

 

In August 1966, Marianne left John and moved in with Mick. Almost instantly she began experimenting with drugs like weed and acid. In 1967, Mick and Marianne started hanging out with the Beatles frequently and appeared the promo video for ‘A Day in the Life.’ She was also part of the all-star line-up in the Stones’ shelved TV special Rock & Roll Circus (1968); where you can see Marianne clearly intoxicated and Mick not amused by the end of the performances. Earlier in ‘67, Mick, Keith and Marianne were busted for drugs on Keith’s Redlands property in Sussex, where Marianne was found nude in only a fur rug. Marianne’s called the whole incident frustrating and embarrassing. “It destroyed me. They were branded bad boy rockstars, while I was labeled a slut and a horrible mother.” Then in ‘68, she started snorting coke and miscarried a baby (she would also lose custody of Nicholas two years later because of the extreme drug abuse). The song ‘Wild Horses’ from the Stones’ 1971 album ‘Sticky Fingers’ originated from the first words Marianne said after waking up from a near-death drug overdose: “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.” Around the same time, Marianne composed the song ‘Sister Morphine,’ which the band also covered on ‘Sticky Fingers,’ and was the B-side of Marianne’s 1968 single ‘Something Better.’ 

 

Mick and Marianne officially broke up in May 1970, not long after she attempted suicide. In her book, she went into detail of how she cut off all her hair and tried to make herself look less pretty to get Mick to be the one to end the relationship. By now, Marianne was addicted to heroin and practically homeless. With the exception of a rather unique 1973 TV performance covering ‘I Got You, Babe’ with David Bowie and the 1975 album ‘Dreamin’ My Dreams,’ her music career was at a stand-still until ‘Broken English.’ Things began looking up again when she started going out with Ben Brierly of the punk band the Vibrators. The two met in 1975, married on July 8th, 1979 before divorcing in 1986. A year before the divorce in 1985, Marianne finally entered rehab to end her drug issues. Since then, Marianne’s life is back on track. She has been steadily releasing music, occasionally acts and she published two more memoirs, Memories, Dreams and Reflections (2008) and A Life on Record (2014). She also reconciled her relationship with son Nicholas and they have regularly been in contact since the 1990s. Marianne had two more serious relationships after Ben as well. Her third and last marriage was to actor Giorgio Della Terza from 1987-1991; and she lived with her manager François Ravard from 1994-2009. 

 

Fun fact: Marianne directly inspired the Hollies’ 1967 single ‘Carrie-Anne.’ Graham Nash had a crush on her at the time, but never told her and slightly modified the namesake. 

with thanks to Pooneil Corners