MOTHER COURAGE
Marianne Faithfull, pan-generational conduit for bohemianism in rock, fought sexism and addiction to be acknowledged as an artist in her own right. Sylvie Simmons pays tribute.
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Wonder Woman: Marianne Faithfull in The Salisbury pub, London, 1964 – “she always moved in a different kind of world,” says Warren Ellis.
MARIANNE FAITHFULL
1946-2025
“Fucking hell, before I die I’m going to show you bastards who I am.”
MARIANNE FAITHFU
IT WAS MID-AFTERNOON and Marianne Faithfull was still in her pyjamas when MOJO paid a visit in 2008. On the coffee table was a cup of tea, a heaving ashtray and a copy of Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. Her voice was low and drowsy. The night before, she’d been on-stage, playing the Devil in Robert Wilson/
William Burroughs/Tom Waits’ musical play The Black Rider. After curtain call, she’d walked the three blocks to her hotel, down a San Francisco street packed with homeless and junkies, changed into her pyjamas, took a mild sleeping pill, turned on the TV and watched Will & Grace.