“I was desolate”: Marianne Faithfull’s ode to lost loved ones
The news came on January 30th. What was starting to look like a normal evening was suddenly laced with tributes for Marianne Faithfull as news of the pop culture icon’s passing made its way onto social media. The news made for incredibly difficult reading, as Faithfull had contributed a great deal to music, film, and media in general, so it was sad to hear of her passing.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” said the statement that had been published by those close to her. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”
One of the most dominating factors people talked about when news of her death broke was her relationship with Mick Jagger and her influence on some of his songs. Some incredibly popular Rolling Stones songs such as ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’.
It’s fine to talk about the songs she inspired, as they are widely renowned in music and wouldn’t exist without her. However, Faithfull was much more than just a muse. She was responsible for writing some incredibly exciting, thought-provoking, and moving music throughout her life, which didn’t hold back in revealing her vulnerability as an artist.
For instance, Broken English was released in the 1970s and marked Marianne Faithfull’s comeback. After struggling throughout a tough period, Faithfull was back on the straight and narrow and writing about some of the topics that she deemed the most important. One of these was war, and they became the centrepiece of the album’s titular song, which took aim at the Cold War and became one of the most renowned protest songs of the period.
Faithfull never stopped writing music. While protest songs became a big part of her discography, she wasn’t afraid to write about a wide range of themes. Ironically, when she passed, she had already written music that spoke about losing loved ones and coming to terms with such a loss, which many people turned to when news of her death broke.
One of these songs was ‘Don’t Go’, which featured on the 2018 album Negative Capability. Faithfull made many friends during her time working in music and dealing with the fallout of what came with a career in music. One of these was Martin Stone, who was a guitarist in her band and almost considered to replace Brian Jones in The Rolling Stones. When he died of cancer, Faithfull wrote this song as an ode to her lost friend, who she missed.
“He was in a band called Mighty Baby and became a great friend who I got to know through AA meetings,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about his music career. It wasn’t the sort of music I like! He had to stop the music business because of the drugs and drink, then had a second career as a rare books dealer.”
Faithfull also found that the lyrics to the song applied to other lost loved ones who she found herself missing, one of which was the model and actress Anita Pallenberg, who died in 2017. “I was desolate when she died,” Faithfull concluded. “I can’t tell you how much I miss her.”
