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Interview
by SashaS
4-4-2002
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More on: Marianne Faithfull
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| Marianne of yesteryear |
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A woman about time
In Part Deux La Faithfull discusses advice, life, bridges, credit and living off charm
Marianne Faithfull’s new album, ‘Kissin Time’, benefits from her collaborations with many a younger muso, Beck, Billy Corgan, Pulp and Blur, and although she might not have influenced them directly she had certainly helped map the popular music we know today. All these young (some attractive) men around her, did she fancy snogging any of them?
“F**k off! They are my friends… I swore long time ago that I wouldn’t sleep with anyone younger than my son.” Nicholas, from her first marriage to art dealer John Dunbar, is 35-year-old author with ‘Inventing Money’ book on his résumé. “I have to live by my decision, however attractive my collaborators are.”
Talking with La Faithfull is a journey one shouldn’t embark upon in a light-minded apparel; at the same time, one is constantly reminded whose mother she should really be, whom she’s inspired so much: Courtney Love, but former Mrs Cobain falls short on having lived a life as tragic as Marianne’s.
“I’ve never complained about hard life…” she pauses for a second. “Hard times I’ve had but they only made me appreciate how lucky I’m and how happy I’m right now. I’m doing 20 open-air festivals this summer; I’m starting a world tour in October and am to work on the next album. It’s the new century, the past is finished, I’m free of it.”
Courtney even sought Faithfull’s advice once but after polite listening to Love’s problems…
“I don’t give advice, and that’s my rule one. If I have any advice for anyone, it is don’t take heroin and don’t smoke crack. That’s all.”
Angelic architecture
Up close (but no personal by any account), Faithfull surprises by looking – no, not little – but stunningly like her 1960s self. Although height-challenged, she is shapely… well, her body-stats have enlarged only by two-inches (just over five centimetres) all over. The old (Rolling) Stones manager Andrew Loog-Oldham’s observation about Fathfull being an “angel with big tits” is still right on, rounded up with an outspoken (frequently filthy) mind. She might sing about some subjects from her past but talking about the (bygone) events is not something she likes to indulge in.
But, her life’s a series of episodes, each better than the next (some retraced in her autobiography, ‘Faithfull’), and another February, in 1971, after falling in a plate of curry, she was taken to the Paddington Police Station to sober up; before releasing her in the morning, the coppers asked her to sign the visitors’ book. Did she find such incidents – surreal?
“It is easy to view it in retrospect…” neckline of her sweater moves even lower as she inhales, “but… You know, it is the same when people ask me about whether we knew that we were creating some-thing new and special back in the 1960s… No, we were just doing things that might look from the outside like we had some great masterplan. There wasn’t, we just didn’t want to repeat what went before us and were learning and creating as we went along.”
A ‘bridge’ too thrill
It might be so but her role in ‘Girl On A Motorcycle’ is something a generation’s sexuality was based upon. It was over 30 years ago but the fact is that MF is still viewed as relevant as she bridges us to the past, according to Billy Corgan.
“Being called a ‘bridge’ is a huge compliment from Billy,” a rare smile graces her lips; “his explanation being that Rock’n’Roll is 50 years old now and it needs bridges, connection to the past but leading into the future.“
The future is something she is focused on and has already started working on the follow up to ‘Kissin Time’; collaboration with PJ Harvey, which failed to happen for the current album, is already in the can and she plans to re-group with musicians who worked on this record as well as invite few more. But, she doesn’t want to talk about it in detail because there is a thing or two that bothers her.
“Yes, I feel that I’ve never been given enough credit,” she sighs resignedly, “for things I’ve done… I’ve always made quality music but there were always things that got in the way and took the attention away.”
A woman that is as cool as a four-letter-word (love, can’t you guess?), she can teach the world – surviving in style. With a blues voice, MF is it without trying at all.
“I didn’t get here on charm only,” she counters the title of ‘Kissin Time’ album’s ‘Sliding Through Life On Charm’, “well, not only on it, I can tell you. This is not what made Marianne Faithfull although I hope there is a little bit of charm left.”
You kidding? It’s like Top Ten pop-babes rolled into one!
SashaS
4-4-2002
Marianne Faithfull’s album ‘Kissin Time’ is out now on Hut/Virgin
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