Marianne Faithfull: the muse who made it on her own terms
If you’re looking for a study in contrasts, you could do worse than compare the two albums released this autumn with ’s name on the cover. The first is Come and Stay With Me, a collection of her 1960s singles that opens and closes with two -related tracks: the and composition As Tears Go By, and Sister Morphine, co-written by Faithfull and Jagger while their relationship was in its death throes. The second is Negative Capability, a meditation on loss, grief and loneliness recorded in Paris last winter with the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis and collaborator Rob Ellis. It also contains a version of As Tears Go By, but there the similarities end. Thematically and sonically, it could be the work of a completely different artist to Come and Stay With Me. Given how often Faithfull’s personal life has overshadowed her music, it is worth noting the artistic distance she has travelled in her career – further than a lot of
