Marianne Faithfull

Angry? Bitter? Inhaled so much drugs and whiskey that your voice is like the sound of sandpaper on baby skin? Marianne Faithfull is the baddest girl that ever lived. Broken English, the unblinking flip side to the Stones' Black and Blue, should be listened to with care. "Why'd Ya Do It" is the perfect song for that person in your life who deserves to die.

Marianne Faithfull had her first hit, a big one, in 1964, with "As Tears Go By" (written by her
lover, Mick Jagger, with Keith Richards), but it was never as a singer that she was central to
the iconography of Swinging London: it was as a Face. She had, you may recall, a sweet,
well-bred, quavering voice. She also had eyes so innocent that no man could resist their
suggestion of unearthly possibilities of lust. From there, the story is well known:... More >

A punk-disco fusion so uncompromised it will scare away fans of both genres, which share a taste for nasty girls that rarely extends to females past thirty with rat's-nest hair and last night's makeup on. The raw dance music isn't exactly original, and sometimes the offhandedness of the lyrics can be annoying, but I like this even when it's pro forma and/or sloppy, or maybe because it's pro forma and/or sloppy, like Dylan when he's good. "Why'd ya spit on my snatch?" indeed--the music's harshest account of a woman fending with the world. (Grade - A-)