Marianne Faithfull a la television 1965-67

Available from http://www.1960s.london

Marianne Faithfull à la Télévision 1965-67

Side One

1. Come And Stay With Me (Jackie DeShannon)
2. Plaisir d’Amour (Jean-Paul-Égide Martini)

3.As Tears Go By (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Andrew Loog Oldham)
4. Go Away From My World (Jon Mark)
5. Yesterday (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
6. Nuits d’Eté (Brian Thomas Henderson, Lisa Strike, Marcel Stellman)
7. What Have They Done With The Rain? (Malvina Reynolds)
8. Hier Ou Demain (Serge Gainsbourg)
9. Brian Epstein interview

Side Two

10. This Little Bird  (John D. Loudermilk)

11. Come And Stay With Me (Jackie DeShannon)

12. What Have They Done With The Rain? (Malvina Reynolds) / As Tears Go By (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Andrew Loog Oldham)
13. There But For Fortune (Phil Ochs)
14. Come And Stay With Me (Jackie DeShannon)

15. Yesterday (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
16. Nuits d’Eté (Brian Thomas Henderson, Lisa Strike, Marcel Stellman)
17. Si Demain (E. Woolfson, M.Stellman)

Recording Details

1-6 Scene de L’Olympia, Discorama 1966

7 A Tous Vents 1966

8 Dents de Lait Dents de Loup 11/1/67
9 Hullaballoo 19/01/65

10-12 Shindig 07/07/65

13 Shindig 14/10/65

14-16 Music Hall de France 66

17 Melody French TV 1965 / Tom Jones Show 1966

Personnel

Marianne Faithfull – Vocals

Jon Mark – Guitar

Sleevenotes

The French have always loved Marianne Faithfull and the feeling is reciprocated: today she has a flat in Paris on the grand Boulevard du Montparnasse. Back in the mid-1960’s Marianne was a regular performer on French television: such shows provide the majority of the songs featured here, all presented in excellent sound quality.

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead on December 29^th 1946. She was a 17 year old schoolgirl when she met Andrew Loog Oldham at a show-biz party in early 1964. Oldham was then managing the meteoric rise of the Rolling Stones, and he persuaded Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to donate her a song. Talking to Andrew Tyler of the New Musical Express in February 1974 Marianne said that although Mick Jagger said he wrote her first hit ‘As Tears Go By’ for her she has always doubted this. “When I was 16 I wanted to be an actress and a scholar too. But whatever I wanted to be I wanted to be great at it. My first move was to get a Rolling Stone as a boyfriend. I slept with three and then I decided the lead singer was the best bet.“ Her relationship with Jagger would be a major influence on both her personal life and her career trajectory.

Interviewed by Alain Elkan in October 2018 Marianne said that in retrospect she feels proud of these embryonic performances.  “It took me a long time to make my career. It really started in 1979, but I think my early work was rather beautiful too.”  The follow up to ‘As Tears Go By’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing In The Wind’ didn’t do anything but in 1965 she had further hits with ‘Come And Stay With Me’, ‘This Little Bird’ and ‘Summer Nights’. Her first two albums Marianne Faithfull and Come My Way also made the charts, despite inexplicably being released on the same day in May 1965. These records featured Faithfull’s delicate, wistful voice plus arrangements and backing from Jon Mark.

The song selection is eclectic. There is pop in Yesterday – Marianne knew Paul McCartney through ex-husband John Dunbar, and As Tears Go By was a song she would return to throughout her career.  Highly respected American singer/songwriter (and Jimmy Page’s girlfriend) Jackie DeShannon provided Come And Stay With Me, troubled troubadour Phil Ochs was the source of There But For Fortune and Tobacco Road / Everything’s Alright songwriter John D. Loudermilk was responsible for This Little Bird. Regular accompanist Jon Mark got a rare songwriting credit on Go Away From My World. The songwriter of What Have They Done To The Rain was Malvina Reynolds a US social commentator, better known for her hits Little Boxes and Mornington Ride.

Of the songs sung in French Plaisir d’Amour (literally ‘The Pleasure Of Love’) dates back to 1784. The melody may sound familiar as it is the basis of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’. Nuits d’Eté (‘Summer Nights’) is based on music by Berlioz and is part of a song cycle which runs from youthful innocence to loss to final renewal. Hier Ou Demain was an original Serge Gainsbourg song specially written for the musical film Anna, broadcast on French TV in January 1967. Si Demain appeared on the 1966 EP Coquillages.

Further LPs would follow in a similar idiom, but to diminishing sales. By 1967 Marianne was completely entangled with Mick Jagger, to her own artistic detriment. However in her role as his muse she helped inspire of some of the Stones best ever songs including Sympathy For The Devil, Let It Bleed, You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Wild Horses. In 1969 Marianne released her version of the Gerry Goffin / Carole King song Something Better. Produced by Mick Jagger and arranged by Jack Nitzsche it should have been a huge hit, but Decca withdrew the release after being spooked by the B side, a Faithfull co-write entitled Sister Morphine. A luminous Marianne performed Something Better for the Stones Rock’n’Roll Circus TV special.

Nothing more was heard from Marianne Faithfull until 1975 when the country-influenced LP Dreaming My Dreams reached number one in the Irish charts. Her artistic renaissance began in earnest with the punk-influenced Broken English album in 1979. Since then she has continued to release new material on a regular basis and in recent years has seemed to face down her demons – addictions, anorexia and Mick Jagger.

Andrew Loog Oldham dismissively described the teenage Marianne as “an angel with big tits”. After making artistically-acclaimed records for over 50 years and releasing two autobiographies Marianne Faithful is now regarded not as a muse but as a successful and determined artist in her own right. Returning to those charming early live performances offers an opportunity to relive how it all began.

Sleevenotes: Cherie Redd