Marianne Faithfull, RIP
02/03/2025
I heard a story many years ago that Mick Jagger objected to the popular impression that he had corrupted the angelic-looking young Marianne Faithfull. He claimed it was the other way around. Whether that story is true or not, she was certainly a very enthusiastic drug user for some large part of her life (at least), and just generally a mess. And as a singer and a person she became something very, very different from the teenager who sang "As Tears Go By" (which as you probably know is a rather uncharacteristic Rolling Stones song).
For years in the 1970s she was apparently lost to heroin, other drugs, and general breakdown. You can read an overview at her Wikipedia entry, and I'm sure there is no lack of obituaries online giving more details. She came back in 1979 with a dark, bitter album called Broken English which I heard once at the time--a friend brought it over, saying "you're not going to believe this"--and never since. For reasons which I don't remember and which now puzzle me, I read her autobiography, Faithfull, when it appeared in the 1990s. Most likely I saw it on the new book shelf at the library and picked it up out of curiosity; I certainly didn't buy it. It is not an enjoyable read.
She became a sort of cabaret-style singer, with a world-weary decadent vibe and a fondness for German songs by Kurt Weill and others, as on her 1996 (?) album 20th Century Blues, which I like, but not as much as I like Strange Weather, from 1987, which includes several gloomy and sometimes ironic takes on various folk and Tin Pan Alley songs. The title song is by Tom Waits, or rather I should say Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Taking out the LP yesterday and listening to it for the first time in some years, I was struck by the names of the other people involved: for instance, the jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, a name I probably didn't know at the time but who can now be fairly described as "revered." It was an all-star production--other names are Garth Hudson (also recently deceased) and Mac Rebennack ("Dr. John"). It includes a revisiting of "As Tears Go By." RIP.
1967:
1987:
***
Perhaps it seems a little odd that I've marked Marianne Faithfull's passing but not that of David Lynch, who died a couple of weeks ago and is much more significant to me. That's mainly because there is so much that I might say about Lynch that a quick and brief note seemed impossible. There was a bit of discussion on the occasion in comments on this post from 2022, about the passing of Julee Cruise.
I still have not seen several of Lynch's most famous works, including Blue Velvet, because of their reputed violence and perversity. That doesn't really make sense, because I don't think they're worse than Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, or for that matter Twin Peaks: The Return. The fact that both Lynch and Faithfull were only two years older than me suggests that if I'm going to watch these others I'd better not keep putting them off.
But then Twin Peaks--the whole package, including the music--really is David Lynch for me. I can't remember whether I've posted this picture before: in 2019 I actually visited the Double-R Diner in North Bend, Washington. The waterfall (Snoqualmie Falls) and the lodge are not far away. You could call it a pilgrimage, I guess.
Goodbye, Agent Cooper.
I have been to the lodge, and Snoqualmie Falls, but somehow did not make it to the diner. Darn! As for Marianne Faithfull, she is someone who I've always know about and that there was a connection to Mick Jagger and the Stones, but I'm pretty sure I have never heard any music by. I'll need to listen to these videos.
Posted by: Stu | 02/04/2025 at 10:20 AM
If her post-'70s voice doesn't put you off too much, you would probably like Strange Weather.
Posted by: Mac | 02/04/2025 at 10:32 AM
I've listened to some of Faithfull's later work but, as you say, I could never get past her voice.
I'm with you on Twin Peaks *being* Lynch for me. Even though Mulholland Dr. is a top all-time film of mine, it was TP that set the tone and the artistic conditions for me to enjoy a movie like that in the first place. I'm always amazed by younger people who claim to be David Lynch fans but have never watched TP and know him only from his movies.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/06/2025 at 05:29 AM
I know network pressure damaged (at least) the second season of TP, but I suspect it also helped the entire project, because the limits of the permissible on tv restrained some of Lynch's darker and more puzzling tendencies, which maybe made room for the humor and whimsical things which are such a big part of TP's appeal. I also suspect that may be part of the reason that The Return is, to my taste, not as successful. Not as lovable, anyway. Lynch didn't have the same constraints
Posted by: Mac | 02/06/2025 at 10:42 AM
Yes, I think you're right. Network restraints probably helped the first season, but it/they got far more involved in the second and that caused some problems. The Return... is much closer in tone and style to Fire Walk With Me than it is to the series, and maybe that's what he had in mind.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/06/2025 at 07:48 PM
I meant to point out that connection between Fire Walk and The Return, which does make one suspect that the darker aspect (to say the least) of both is closer to The Real Lynch.
Posted by: Mac | 02/06/2025 at 11:07 PM
You should really watch Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, Mac!
I pretty much agree with both of you, but the darker elements are as fun as the comedic ones.
To bring another director into this discussion that I think you both like a lot....one of the reasons I really can't get onto the Denis Villeneuve bandwagon too much is the guy has zero humor in his films.
Posted by: Stu | 02/07/2025 at 09:02 AM
I've rented BV but for various reasons have not yet watched it. I think I still have 10 days before the rental expires so I better get to it pretty soon.
I seem to remember, re The Return, that you liked the goofy idiot version of Cooper (can't remember what he was called), and I thought that it was overdone or went on too long, or something.
I don't know if I can say I like Villeneuve a lot--I just like Arrival a lot. Though I only saw it once. Don't know if I've seen anything else. I haven't watched the second installment of Dune, in part because I wasn't especially taken by the first one and so am not that interested.
Posted by: Mac | 02/07/2025 at 10:39 AM
"the darker elements are as fun as the comedic ones"
I agree in general; it's just that sometimes I find them too dark, in the same way that some of the comedy can be too silly.
I've seen six of Villeneuve's eleven films, and have liked them all. Never noticed a lack of humor, which strikes me as a somewhat odd concern. He makes serious films, so I'd expect any humor that was present to be "natural," something just taken in stride, and thus not particularly noticeable.
Two somewhat Lynchian films you guys may like are 'Nocturnal Animals' (2016) and 'Hanna' (2011). The director of the latter, Joe Wright, said that one of the things he had in mind when directing it was the question, "What if David Lynch had decided to make an action movie?" I like both of these movies a lot, not least because of their Lynchian echoes.
Villeneuve himself did a somewhat Lynchian film called 'Enemy'. I liked it, but found it almost unbearably creepy, partly (but not completely) because it's got a recurring spider theme amidst the surrealism, and I'm more than a little arachnophobic.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/08/2025 at 06:24 AM
I watched Blue Velvet, and found it somewhat disappointing. It seemed a sort of not entirely successful effort at what Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive would later be. Just didn't seem as well executed as those, though there were some great moments. It seems redundant to complain that "Frank" was over the top--obviously he was meant to be--but it didn't really work for me. I was well enough prepared for the violence, and also more inured to it than I was in 1986, that it didn't really bother me. Kyle Maclachlan and Laura Dern were really good, especially Dern--she really had that genuine sweetness that the character was supposed to have.
I had forgotten that Villeneuve directed Blade Runner 2049, which I didn't think was that good. I only saw it the one time--maybe I'd like it better if I saw it again.
Those Joe Wright films sound interesting.
Posted by: Mac | 02/09/2025 at 12:46 PM