Swinging London

Marianne began her singing career in 1964, landing her first gigs as a folk music performer in coffeehouses.  She soon began taking part in London's exploding social scene.  In early 1964 she attended a Rolling Stones launch party with John Dunbar and met Andrew Loog Oldham, who discovered her.  Her first major release, As Tears Go By, was written by Jagger, Richards and Oldham, and became a chart success.  She then released a series of successful singles, including Blowin' in the Wind', Summer Nights and Come and Stay With Me.  Marianne married artist John Dunbar on 6 May 1965 in Cambridge with Peter Asher as the best man.  The couple lived in a flat at 29 Lennox Gardens in Belgravia just off Knightsbridge, London SW1.  On 10 November 1965 she gave birth to their son, Nicholas.  However, she soon left her husband to live with Mick Jagger! In 1966 she took their son to stay with Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg in London.  During that time period, Marianne started smoking marijuana and became fast friends with Anita.  She also began a much publicised relationship with Mick Jagger that same year.  The couple became notorious and largely part of the hip Swinging London scene.  She was found wearing only a fur rug by police executing a drug search at Richards' house in West Wittering, Sussex.  In an interview 27 years later with A.M. Homes for Details, Marianne discussed her wilder days and admitted that the drug bust fur rug incident had ravaged her personal life: It destroyed me.  To be a male drug addict and to act like that is always enhancing and glamorising.  A woman in that situation becomes a slut and a bad mother.  In 1968 Marianne, by now addicted to cocaine, miscarried a daughter (whom she had named Corrina) while retreating to Jagger's country house in Ireland.

Marianne's involvement in Jagger's life would be reflected in some of the Rolling Stones' best known songs.  Sympathy for the Devil, (1968), was in part inspired by The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, a book which Marianne introduced Mick to.  The song You Can't Always Get What You Want (1969) was supposedly written about Faithfull; the songs Wild Horses and I Got the Blues (1971) were also allegedly influenced by Marianne, and she co-wrote Sister Morphine.  The writing credit for the song was the subject of a protracted legal battle; the resolution of the case has Marianne listed as co-author of the song.  In her autobiography, Marriane said Jagger and Richards released it in their own names so that her agent did not collect all the royalties and proceeds from the song, especially as she was homeless and battling with heroin addiction at the time.  Marianne appeared in The Rolling Stones 1968 Rock and Roll Circus video, giving solo performances of As Tears Go By and Something Better. According to Graham Nash his song Carrie Anne by the Hollies is about that time in her life as well.  The Beatles's 1966 song And Your Bird Can Sing on the Revolver album may have been written about her also.

Marianne ended her relationship with Jagger in May 1970, and she lost custody of her son in that same year, which led to her attempting suicide. With her personal life in decline, and her career went in a tailspin.  FaithfullMarianne lived on London's Soho streets for two years, suffering from heroin addiction and anorexia nervosa.  Friends intervened and enrolled her in an NHS drug programme, from which she could get her daily fix on prescription from a chemist.  She was one of the programme's most notorious failures, neither controlling nor stabilising her addiction as the NHS intended.  In 1971, producer Mike Leander found her on the streets and made an attempt to revive her career, producing part of her album Rich Kid Blues. The album would be shelved until 1985. Severe laryngitis, coupled with persistent cocaine abuse during this period, permanently altered Marianne's voice, leaving it cracked and lower in pitch.  While the new sound was praised as "whisky soaked" by some critics, journalist John Jones, of the Sunday Times, wrote that she had permanently vulgarised her voice.  In 1975 she released the country-influenced record Dreamin' My Dreams (a.k.a. Faithless), which reached No.1 on the Irish Albums Chart. Swinging London covers Marianne's recording career 1964 - 1977 with select tracks from Come My Way, Marianne Faithful, Go Away From My World, North Country Maid, Love in a Mist and Dreamin' My Dreams.  Enjoy!

Wanderin' Spirit
June, 2014
"Swinging London"

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