Faithfull

Rating:
Summary: As pages go by, you won't want to put this book down.
Review: I read this book upon the recommendation of a friend and was not at all disappointed; rather completely immersed and fascinated. Marianne is an excellent writer who crafts a detailed story rich with description and frank observations. Her account of her acid trips is worth the price of admission alone--- brilliant and teeming with past-life symbolism and classical references. There are many fascinating details throughout, such as her near-death experience while in a coma, in which she meets up with a "dead" Brian Jones stuck between two worlds.

Her writing about her plunge into heroin addiction is unapologetic, and in fact, I was thankful that her conclusions upon recovery didn't degenerate into the trite moralizing that would have been the obvious route taken by any other author. (She admits she had a certain romantic attachment to the notion of being a street addict after reading "Naked Lunch.") She also makes no apologies for a certain blue-blooded attitude of her upper-echelon status; rather she is endearing in her honesty and fine opinion of herself and her surroundings, framing it within the context of her middle-class, yet elevated, upbringing

This is a book that almost begs to be re-read, because there is so much detail to savor, plus a lot of deep musings and off-the-cuff wit. This book is the polar opposite of the run-of-the-mill, ghost-written celebrity autobiographies. Marianne's voice, depth, wisdom and vast intellect come through loud and clear. I just wish her book were a little longer because I didn't want it to end.

Rating:
Summary: Faithfull...The Sixty's All Over
Review: Just finished reading Marianne Faithfull's autobiography which I found at a half-price book store (guess it's out of print). Having spent my teen years in the sixties, I found the book transporting me back to those earlier days when I collected photos from "Sixteen Magazine" and kept a scapbook on the Byrds. While Marianne's life does not come even close to what I experienced in those days, I recall reading a lot of news items on her and how people were fascinated with her entanglement with Mick Jagger. I also lived with the fact that my first romantic interest was enamoured of her and how it made me wish I were blonde, complete with her full lips and chest. However, after reading about her life, I can only feel pity and remorse for such a once-beautiful songstress with the voice of an angel. Little did I know then how tragic her life really was. We were insulated by the media, learning only a fraction of what really happened in her life. Marianne does not attempt to evoke sympathy here; on the contrary, she sounds almost triumphant in recounting her past. She has slain many demons and has not emerged unscathed. I had to read this in smaller increments, because the details left me feeling morose, almost unable to go on to the next chapter. It dredged up dark images of the sixties and those who were enmeshed in the rock n' roll scene. You can't get much closer to how it really was. It's dark, depressing and almost disgusting. But it's a page turner cause you'll keep hoping that she'll learn. Maybe the next chapter, she'll learn! Like all souls she was on her path to enlightnment and found more than a few obstacles. This is a worthwhile read, but don't read it just before sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, repeat.
Review: Marianne Faithfull exasperated me. She comes across as a high-profile groupee who has taken drugs and -- oh, you name it --David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, etc, etc, etc. Although she had a brief career as a model and a short stint as a singer (more of a rasper), she really has no talent of her own -- David Dalton had to cull together and edit all this stuff, if not write the whole mess himself. A juicy read if you are interested in homosexual rock stars and tales of drug addiction -- but you may quickly lose patience with all her worshipful name-dropping and spitefull betrayal of her former friends and lovers. Marianne Faithfull needed the money.

Rating:
Summary: Relentlessly honest, Faithfull stays true to herself.
Review: Marianne Faithfull's autobiography (with help from David Dalton) is one of those books about an entertainer who seems so much a part of her time that it would be easy to dismiss her story as being anticlimactic or melodramatic. Fortunately, this is not the case, because Faithfull tells her tale with a refreshing candor and sense of humor, while also remaining very down-to-earth and unimpressed with the trappings of fame and fortune.

By her own account, Faithfull has not always been the most pleasant person to her many fans and friends ... or even her family. However, she comes across in these pages as an exceptional and original artist who probably could not help but break the rules. And considering that Faithfull was still only a teenager when she recorded her first hit, "As Tears Go By," it was perhaps inevitable that too much success, too fast, would have some negative consequences, which is a lesson some of today's young pop stars might do well to heed.

Faithfull appears to have been almost totally unprepared for the pressures of rock and roll celebrity, touring, and the drugs and sex that so often go along with those first two circumstances. Of course, she recounts her experiences with the Rolling Stones (ex-boyfriend Mick Jagger in particular), and describes her meetings/relationships with everyone from Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan to Van Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. This could have deteriorated into mere name-dropping but somehow never does, and Faithfull goes on to sketch colorful scenes of encounters with Gene Pitney, Robert Mitchum, Tom Waits, and a host of others, as well. She clears up a few myths about the infamous Rolling Stones' drug bust (i.e., the ridiculous Mars Bar rumor), and does not shrink from discussing her addiction to heroin and how it fed her tendency toward selfishness in ways that she now regrets.

Mostly, however, Faithfull proves that she is a talented songwriter and a resourceful survivor (early suicide attempts notwithstanding). Her affection for her parents (especially her mother) is quite touching, and her commitment to her music is impressive. When Faithfull details the difficulty of creating her masterpiece, "Broken English," the reader gets a feel for how much of a struggle it really was for her to form a band and fight to ensure that every sound on the album was just right, the way she wanted it. Indeed, one critic has said that even the title of the record could very well apply to Faithfull herself.

Two quotes in this autobigraphy stand out both for what they say about Faithfull's approach to the entertainment industry, and the hard-won wisdom she acquired late in her life. Aspiring rock stars should take note of Faithfull's observation that, "...the law of pop music ...is that you have to give away a lot to get anything. If you're not prepared to surrender almost everything, you won't get anything at all."

In a more general statement that could apply to just about anyone, Faithfull later draws upon the painful experience of losing a close friend to remark: "There's a persistent illusion that love will heal all wounds, but it just isn't so. Love is transcendent, but it can't mend everything."

At 320 pages, Faithfull's bio ends a bit too soon, and you may find yourself wishing that she had included more recent information from the last 10 years of her career. There certainly is no shortage of material for her to cover. Yet that is also a good thing. As every performer knows, it's always best to leave the audience wanting more. Faithfull may be the crazy lady of rock and roll, but she has produced a warm and witty book with enough interesting twists and turns to hold the attention of anyone curious about what's behind "the star-making machinery" of the pop music business. Read and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Sliding through life on charm
Review: She was the quintessential rock girlfriend in the 60s, the young woman envied by everyone -- men wanted her, and women wanted to be her. Now Marianne Faithfull offers her own side of the story of during and after that time, with dry wit and fractured nostalgia. If you ever heard the stories about Marianne, then hear what she has to say.

Marianne Faithfull was born the daughter of an idealistic British gentleman and a haughty countess, and schooled in a convent that sheltered her from the outside world. All that went out the window when she came into contact with the blossoming rock'n'roll scene, and was recruited by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham into recording pop song "As Tears Go By." Soon afterwards, Marianne was wooed by rock star Mick Jagger, and left her husband to live with Jagger.

At first, it seemed fantastic; Marianne lived in a haze of drugs, music and glamour with Jagger, the doomed Brian Jones, darkly intriguing Keith Richards, and the fascinating Anita Pallenberg. It was a time of rebellion, shifting sexuality, drugs and general strangeness. But criminal trials, addictions and Jagger's dalliances caused cracks in their relationship. After Marianne and Jagger broke up, she descended into heroin addiction, and her son was taken away. But she pulled herself up out of her addiction and released a new kind of music -- music that reflected her past, in all its darkness.

Marianne's memoir is refreshingly just and honest -- she gives people like Jagger their due, only speaking badly when it's called for. She not only speaks out on the sexism of the press toward her (and their revolting, idiotic Mars bar story), but also about the hideous consequences it almost had for her mother Eva. Looking back on the fur rug and the handling of Marianne's presence, it's hard to believe that such ghastly mishandling of the facts could take place and actually be believed for so long. When the press turned on the Stones, they also turned on Marianne.

And she's the first to admit (many times) that she's made mistakes; if anything, she seems harder on herself than anyone else, recognizing when she should have done better, spoken up, acted differently. (Such as when she blasted Jagger during an emotional moment) What's more, she offers greater insight into Richards, Jagger, Pallenberg, Bob Dylan and others -- not just about them, but the effect they had on people around them. (Richards' Byronic presence, Jones' tormented baby pictures, Pallenberg's hypnotic effect -- all these are amazing insights) And she doesn't pretend that her post-junkie life and romantic relationships were idyllic -- there are low points and high points, stumbles and falls. But it's inspiring to see her releasing new music and overcoming her past problems.

The writing is wonderfully vivid, reading almost like a novel at times; Faithfull intersperses her rockspeak with literary and mythologic references (the Lady of Shalott is mentioned multiple times) that give "Faithfull" added sophistication. She also doesn't glorify the drug use that almost killed her; it's pretty horrifying for awhile there despite her initial romantic ideas about it. Faithfull also demonstrates a dry sense of humor that made me chuckle. (Lacking a true finale, she ends the book with cooking tips)

A weaker woman than Marianne Faithfull might have been killed by all she's gone through. But her rise again is an inspiring and honest one, and "Faithfull" is a must-read for fans of rock and roll.

Rating:
Summary: a documentary
Review: this book is a great documentary of a period we missed..and mixture of misery and nobility

Rating:
Summary: Life lived to the full
Review: This riveting biography charts Marianne Faithfull's life from her earliest childhood dream to 1994. Along the way, it also serves as a captivating cultural history of swinging London in the 1960s and the music world in subsequent decades. Marianne describes her family background, dispelling many myths along the way, and provides an interesting account of how she entered the music business.

The recollections of touring with the popular bands of the time are interesting, as is the way she entered the Rolling Stones circle. Her first humorous encounter with Bob Dylan and his entourage was so different from a much later meeting in the 1980s when she explained every song on Broken English to an admiring and enquiring Dylan. The glimpses into the interpersonal relations of the Stones are enlightening and poignant, specially the way she describes the decline of the ill-fated Brian Jones.

She talks matter of factly about her relationship with Mick Jagger and the notoriety she gained with various drug busts. Faithfull doesn't spare the reader any of the detail of her long relationship with a breathtaking variety of drugs, but the most interesting parts are when she relates particular events and circumstances to specific compositions by Jagger and by herself.

She discusses all the anarchy and hedonism of the times with a detached air, observing that her generation wanted to see change everywhere, but none of them could quite figure it out and it all ended up as wretched excess. She talks at length about the movie Performance and about her song Sister Morphine. The saddest part is when she spent about 2 years of her life sitting on a wall in Soho, completely spaced out, and she mentions how kindly people treated her.

The making of her country album Faithless, a big hit in Ireland, is described in detail, as well as her big comeback with Broken English in 1979. I really enjoyed her encounters with various musicians, like the tragic Tim Hardin who co-wrote the song Brain Drain on Broken English with Ben Brierly. There's even an interesting snippet about Cristina Monet, wife of Ze Records founder Michael Zilkha. Why'd Ya Do It, one of the most controversial songs on the Broken English album, was written by poet Heathcote Williams. Marianne had to beg him for hours to allow her to record it, as he wanted Tina Turner to do it!

There is no bitterness in any of Faithfull's writing, but lots of humour and witty observations. She is full of praise for musicians like Barry Reynolds and Van Morrison with whom she has worked. As a great fan of hers and The Stones, I am truly relieved that there were no life threatening sexually transmitted diseases in the 1960s and 1970s because then a whole generation of musicians would have been lost, what with all the intercourse between everybody so vividly recalled by Marianne.

This book confirms why Faithfull is a true survivor and has developed into an original artist with growing stature. The text is thoroughly engaging and the scandal is well balanced by observations on the songs, the times, the making of the albums and the films. There are 45 black and white photographs and a thorough index. I highly recommend Faithfull to all her fans, students of the 1960s counterculture and those who enjoy good rock biography. Other great books of the genre include Nico, The Last Bohemian (Songs They Never Play On The Radio) by James Young and Scars Of Sweet Paradise (Janis Joplin) by Alice Echols.


Rating:
Summary: Fascinating like a train wreck
Review: What struck me most about Ms. Faithfull's memoir is her apparent belief that everyone surrounding her was absurd. According to this text, at the age of 17, she survived her early pop music touring years by formulating "sociological studies" of her tourmates. This, while filling the detached and sophisticated position of mattress to the stars.

It was an engaging read, but Marianne Faithfull appears to have had an axe to grind towards everyone she encountered during her early, baffling rise to fame. Her personal talent seems to have been ethereal beauty and its incumbent charisma, but she made no artistic impression and even admits her persona was the fakest of the fake. Of course, this does not prevent her from forming scathing assessments of the character vs. image of all others.

The irony is that she seems to feel she was above them, judging everyone from a sort of astrally-projected position somewhere near the ceiling. That, and the Old-World-European-Blueblood riff that she clings to, seem to have entitled Marianne (to hear her tell it) to look down on her betters.

If charisma alone made gifted men fools for her, at least they were gifted. Her cold, arrogant and occasionally cruel pronouncements about genuinely talented people who never harmed her are not admirable...

Rating:
Summary: mind candy
Review: Wonderful book, read the hard cover edition (stayed up all night to do so) but have to say....the cover photo on the paperback edition looks frighteningly like Courtney Love.