SES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES: MARIANNE FAITHFULL
"I've always known who I was, she says in a raspy, Bette Davis voice."
Ive always known who I was, she says in a raspy, Bette Davis voice. Whether I could achieve to express that to everyone else was another matter. I am who I am. Im confident enough now to show myself. Perhaps it took this long—Ive thought of it before—its as if Ive been staying undercover. You know, how animals keep to the trees and bushes, if they might get killed. I often think thats what I was doing until very recently.
You look closely at her to see the girl she used to be. This little bird that somebody sent/Light and fragile and feathered sky blue. So pure and fluttery, singing madrigalish pop-folk songs and the theme from The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, lying in a field of grass on the cover of Faithfull Forever... peering out from behind blonde bangs. In the intervening years, Marianne Faithfull has gone from most desired doll of the U.K. pop explosion to near-casualty of the sexual-chemical battles, to woman of strength and purpose. If there is a more dramatic creative leap than the one that led to 1979s Broken English, it doesnt readily spring to mind. But there, in her smile, is the Girl of the 60s. It is the identical smile that graced the pages of Rave 15 years ago, when the interviewer was himself 15, and envious of the benefits that came with being a Rolling Stone.
