A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull
Image Credit... Danny Kasirye for The New York Times
We lost one of the true greats last week when Marianne Faithfull died at age 78. A pop star turned punk rocker turned cabaret chanteuse, Faithfull was also a style icon, an actress with remarkable screen presence and a wonderfully unfiltered memoirist, among many other things. She will be greatly missed — but what a life she lived!
Today's playlist is a celebration of Faithfull's long and varied musical career, which began at 17 — when she was signed on sight by the Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham — and stretched until her late 70s. I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Faithfull in 2021, around the release of what is now the final album she released in her lifetime, 'She Walks in Beauty,' which found her reciting Romantic poetry atop compositions produced by her friend and collaborator Warren Ellis. She was then recovering from a nasty bout of Covid-19 that had put her in a coma, but her resilience was something to behold.
That toughness and durability was a through line of her career, as she sprung back from multiple near-death experiences and returned with music that seemed supercharged by those struggles. She was a bold, intuitive and one-of-a-kind artist, as you'll hear on the following 10 tracks.
Also, apologies for this newsletter going out a day late. My personal advice: Steer clear of that norovirus! Thankfully I'm now on the mend and The Amplifier will return to its regular schedule on Friday. Til then!
It is the evening of the day,
Lindsay
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