Tuesday , April 23 2024
So whatever happened to Marianne Faithfull?

DVD Review: Marianne Faithfull – Dreaming My Dreams

So whatever happened to Marianne Faithfull?

How exactly did the girl with the sweet and innocent coquetittsh good looks in the sixties progress (or as some would say, digress), to the heroin-addicted casualty of the seventies? After all, students of rock history probably most remember Faithfull as Mick Jagger's girlfriend in the sixties.

Right?

In what is probably the most famous pop star drug bust of the sixties, Marianne Faithfull was the girl found wrapped nude in a rug. And just like that, Marianne Faithfull went from aristocratic royalty to England's most infamous slut.

To be honest, this one hour documentary from Eagle Vision doesn't really reveal all that much that isn't already known. Marianne Faithfull's journey from the girl who came from aristocratic beginnings to become a pop star in the sixties with the Jagger/Richards-penned "As Tears Go By" has already been well documented.

The good news here is that Marianne Faithfull seems to have come out of all this in one piece.

In the interview segments here, Marianne Faithfull actually looks astonishingly good. What makes this such a good documentary is the way the filmmakers document
Faithfull's descent from the virginal pop princess of the sixties, to the artist who confessed all of her sins so nakedly and brilliantly on the 1979 album Broken English.

On this DVD, the entire story is recounted in interviews with everyone from the Stones' Keith Richards, to Faithfull's one-time husband John Dunbar.

For those who don't already know the whole story, this is as good a retelling of that tale as it gets. For those who do, this is a fascinating ride down the road of how Marianne Faithfull went from the virginal, manufactured pop star of "As Tears Go By," to the cigarette-voiced rasp of 1979's brilliant Broken English.

She still looks pretty damned good, too.

About Glen Boyd

Glen Boyd is the author of Neil Young FAQ, released in May 2012 by Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard Publishing. He is a former BC Music Editor and current contributor, whose work has also appeared in SPIN, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Rocket, The Source and other publications. You can read more of Glen's work at the official Neil Young FAQ site. Follow Glen on Twitter and on Facebook.

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