Sixties icon
Tribute album: Stars help sick Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull: “I will probably never be able to sing again.” photo
© Ferdy Damman/ANP Kippa/dpa
Corona disease almost cost Marianne Faithfull her life in 2020. Three years later, the singer is still suffering from the consequences.
With cult hits like “As Tears Go By” and “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”. Marianne Faithfull has forever secured a place in pop history. Until a few years ago, Faithfull, who was once considered the Rolling Stones’ muse, was still actively making music. Until she stopped a serious corona illness, the consequences of which the 76-year-old is still suffering from. She now lives in a nursing home in London. “I’ll probably never be able to sing again,” Faithfull said in an interview with the Daily Mail. Others are now singing for them.
For the album “The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull” a number of stars have come together to pay homage to the sixties icon. Proceeds from the new musical compilation will go to Marianne Faithfull to “support her with rising health care costs,” it says. “Being an icon or a muse doesn’t pay the bills,” says Tanya Pearson of the nonprofit Women of Rock Oral History Project, which co-created the album, “even if you’re Marianne Faithfull.”
Cat Power and Iggy Pop
Some prominent names are there and sing songs from Faithfull’s diverse repertoire. Rock legend Iggy Pop and Cat Power have re-recorded “Working Class Hero”, originally by John Lennon, in Faithfull’s distinctive interpretation. Garbage singer Shirley Manson and Peaches sing a duet of “Why’d Ya Do It”, Tanya Donelly and the Parkington Sisters perform “This Little Bird”. Tammy Faye Starlite sings “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan” and is joined by Faithfull’s longtime guitarist Barry Reynolds, who also played on the original 1979 recording.
In a statement about the album, Marianne Faithfull said she was overjoyed and thanked those involved. “I am very grateful to the wonderful artists who contributed to this tribute album,” the singer wrote. “The fact that they identify with my art and that it has touched them in some way in their own lives means a lot to me. Their interpretations of songs that I have recorded and performed over the course of my 60-plus year career are incredibly moving .”