Sir Michael of Jagger, is similarly afflicted.

he hasn't made a great record since SONGS FOR DRELLA.
that's twenty years people.

Nico. Marianne. Anita P. High born. Low living. Pristine. Corrupted. Vessels of impurity but somehow sacredly so. Every drug a ritual. Every cigarette an incantation. A former life. Now gone. In its place an infinite ache.

Marianne is not now - nor Nico. But then - when the moon stood still over Powys Square and the Devil came to visit with his lithe ministrations and perfect diction. Just try this and this. And they did - and as their pupils dimmed, their lives unfolded. Love. Betrayal. Decay.

Oh, I bloody hate Marianne F. Not only is she crap (Broken English the track is just about acceptable), but she seems to inspire both idiots and people who should know better to lose any critical faculty and churn out the words 'icon' 'legend' 'phenomenom' on absolutely no basis whatsoever. She also inspires people to describe smoking a fag as an incantation (I assume the above is ironic, but someone somewhere has written it seriously).

of her remake of As Tears Go By from the 80s. I found it fantastic - like a female Tom Waits. Her 60s stuff is great too. As is Nico's first album and that ditty she did with Jimmy page - i'm not sayin. And as for people slagging Mick off..as he sang on his first hit - Come on. Get a grip man. You don't become the singer of the world's greatest rock group for nothing.

excels at what she does, although I am the first to admit that she operates within a narrow range. Nico is a good comparison. Maybe Yoko Ono too.

She's is not a legend, she's certainly not a great singer in any conventional sense but there's no doubting the experience and conviction that she brings to what she does. The audience gets to bring its pre-conceptions, and she knows that.

As for 'Broken English', if you don't like it, don't try. That Susan Boyle CD will be out soon enough.

Woodface. In fact before I read your posting I was composing one on the exact same subject. Her performance of The Crane Wife was ghastly and her voice was frankly a joke. The irony is that I nearly bought her latest cd on impulse and only refrained because I read a review I think in Word that said her version of Somewhere was possibly the worst thing the reviewer had ever heard. If it was as bad as the performance on Later then I am glad my money stayed in my pocket. I have previously regarded her with affection and I do like her version of As tears go by but I think in hindsight her popularity is more down to what she did or didnt do with a Mars Bar and who she hung out with than any given talent. When asked by Jools for any tips to up and coming stars she said 'Stay original' - not bad for someone who consistently murders other peoples songs. My opinion has been revised after watching this performance.

To cut and paste something I wrote on another thread recently,

"...from fey ingenue who couldn't sing, through Nico-impersonator who couldn't sing, to her current incarnation as hoary old world-weary croaker who can't sing, the only justification for her continued fame is that she gives good anecdote. But that's justification for a book of memoirs, not a musical career".

But by God,she used to be fit

Looking for old photos of Marianne, jamie?

I too tuned in (for Doves) and was surprised as to how bad she was. Hey ho.

that most of those we think fondly of are but sad travesties of their past? The exceptions are few, with the list of artists with 40 year careers giving a better selection within the second twenty years being indeed short. Can anyone really, really think of anyone? And don't give me Cohen: I'm your Man was many a long year ago, despite the odd subsequent gem.(I'm talking material more than performance)
BTW, this isn't a plea to give up past a decade, as I still gain pleasure from the elderly troupers who totter the boards, and, even if increasingly like dogs on their hind legs, the fact that they can still manage pretty good material is asworthy as much of attention as perhaps the brilliant candles of their early shinings.
I like Ms Faithfull, but only in tiny portions of pre-chewed form, i.e. the very rare song that fits her narrow ability. When it fits, it fits great.

"You call that singing? And bloody hell, is that a boy or a girl?"

I feel like I'm about 13 again.

but by God is she up herself. I suppose that comes with her upbringing and being famous so young, but she's become a parody of herself.

Interviews are hilarious. That Lynn Barber one some years back hit the nail on the head, and Marianne didn't like it one bit.

Some people really know how to work the PR machine. Fish also springs to mind.

He got an acting job in a terrible movie called The Jacket. It was filmed in Scotland and got a lot of press because George Clooney was producing it and turned up for a week or so of filming.

By reading the press coverage you would assume Fish was fourth credited and played a substantial supporting role. Every article always quoted him or had a large box-out with him describing the film and his character.

I then saw the film (don't bother, it really sucks). Fish was in about three scenes totalling one minute of screen time. He had maybe one line of very short, and probably incoherent line of dialogue. And he was probably fifteenth credited.

Faithful has a great PR team. And she has a good back story to give her something to talk about. I can see why magazines and TV shows are very happy to interview her. Just a shame she doesn't deserve the attention she gets.

Luckily all the PR coverage in the world will never convince a large number of people to buy a Faithful or Fish album.

and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got."
Wise/Morecambe/Jackson

The Eyes. The Lips. The Rack. Men are quite simple. Andrew Loog Oldham fell. Jagger. And certain men in thrall to beauty - a mere girl - seek to overcome dominion by asserting dominion.

Change her. Control her. Abandon her. And so it all began. The rise, fall and rise. Resurrection. National Treasure. The alternative Queen Mother.

Not sure I see the parallels with lovely old Fish though...

gets attention because of her past - as a 60's popstar, as Jagger's one-time main squeeze, and as a recovering addict certainly, but also because of albums like 'Broken English' which is undeniably a great piece of work.

I've seen her live show a few times and on a good night it's great, on a bad night terrible. But then that sort of sums up Dylan, or Van Morrison or Stephen Stills or ... well just about anyone.

I met her once too. She was very charming.

If you want an example of how she can step out of character seek out her version of 'Madame George' which is stunning.

we all have people who we think are over-rated.Personally I've always found Morrisey to be the most tuneless over rated poseur the world has ever seen.Dylan though who can't sing either I love.As long as we realise we all have these opinions and it doesnt make any of us actually right it's ok.Its when people talk as if there's is the only voice that matters as arbitors of taste that it grates.

Is she - or was she ever - a great singer? No. Is she an "important" artist? No. Is she an "icon" or a "legend"? Fatuous question - it's even more subjective than assessing her (or anyone's) musical talents.

Yet Broken English is a genuinely great album. And what's more, it's great because of her. I'll try to explain what I mean by that: Can't Get You Out Of My Head is a great record too, the difference being that it would still have been a great record had someone else been singing it, like its co-writer Cathy Dennis, for example. By contrast, MF was central to Broken English's impact: she co-wrote more than half of the songs, and those that she didn't write sound as if they could have been written for her. It may seem a strange comparison, but I think she has something in common with Madonna, another extraordinarily high-profile woman who is obviously not particularly gifted musically, but whose best records have her own unmistakeable stamp on them. Papa Don't Preach and Til Death Us Do Part, to name a couple, couldn't have worked without her.

Her voice was already shot to pieces by 1979, but to me there was enough power and musicality to get across what needed to be got across. She could still sing thirty years ago, as will be obvious when compared to her recent performance on Later, which I agree was awful.

I've got some of her post-BE work, and the one I particularly like is A Secret Life, produced by Angelo Badalamenti. There are some good songs and performances on it. Her live album from the early 90s, Blazing Away, is also very good; I saw her live 3 or 4 times, and she was terrific.

In terms of her musical output, she'll end up meriting a small entry when the definitive book of pop music is written. But I would unhesitatingly describe her as an artist.

did like Mars Bars apparently.

Watching "Later.." on Tuesday evening, I was horrified to realise she was covering "The Crane Wife 3"; similarly on Friday, I was disappointed to notice she was covering Neko Case's "Hold On Hold On". Not in the, "How dare she cover a "masterpiece"?" way, but simply because I thought, anybody listening to this, unaware of the originals, is not going to realise how good those songs actually are.

Although we know Jools seems to adore every artist that appears on his show (much like Jonathan Ross always likes the latest film this week's guest is here to promote), like others, I don't know how Marianne Faithfull can be considered an icon. Fair enough, she slept with Mick and Keef in the 60's, but does that give the media reason to put her on a pedestal for the next forty years? I did actually wonder if her voice was fairly good in the past, and that age and lifestyle had ruined it, but it seems that she was never going to rival Dusty, Aretha or Mama Cass for a seat at the table of "Great Female Singers of The 60s".

For a decade in the same way that Twiggy, Mandy Rice Davies, Christine Keeler and Mary Quant were. It doesnt necessarily mean that she was a talented singer. I dont have a problem with that or her place in history. I do have a problem with Later putting her up there as a meaningful artist with songs of value to todays scene.
Yes, the comments about Mars Bars were possibly offensive if you are of a sensitive disposition but if you asked the average person to name 3 things about MF the answers would be 1) She hung out with the Stones in the sixties 2) She allegedly got caught in a compromising position with a Mars Bar and 3) She sang As Tears go by. If you ask Joe Public what else she sang the majority would not know. So yes it was a frivolous comment but not without some justification.

..could not have put it better.
Thank you, and apologies all round, again.

her 'Crane Wife 3' [on record and ...Later] [or is it Later...]

Marianne sings Kurt Weil is a great album

Mars have never issued a writ for defamation or for casting a slur on their esteemed product.
Likewise Cadburys missed a trick in their advertising of Aztec, their, as I remember, near copy. A loose lipped rocker* could have been a better bet than the poor mans Bond of choice
*Jagger, you filthy beasts!!!!

..for Marianne around these parts. Never liked her 60s stuff before the voice got cracked and broken, but since Broken English she's made around a dozen good albums and the Rolling Stones have made two (Tattoo You and Stripped). Easy Come Easy Go was my favourite release of last year. Could have done without the Jarvis Cocker duet though.

"We want to put the world on the map."

Anyone? Adam and Joe? No? Just me then.