Singer and actress Ms Marianne Faithfull sadly died today at the age of 78 years. Marianne passed away peacefully in London, in the company of her loving family.
Born in Hampstead, London, UK in December 1946, to parents, father Major Robert Glynn Faithfull (a British intelligence officer) and mother Eva (a ballerina), in the 1960s became famously the girlfriend of ‘Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger. She rose to fame in 1964 with hit songs like ‘As Tears Go By’, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, which then reached the UK top 10. She will also be remembered for starring roles in films including the 1968 ‘The Girl On A Motorcycle’.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.
Lyrics: Late American writer, cartoonist, songwriter and musician Shel Silverstein(1930-1999). Vocals: The late English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull[Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull], (29th December 1946 – 30 January 2025). Song featured is from her 1979 album ‘Broken English’.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.
The morning sun touched lightly on, The eyes of Lucy Jordan, In a white suburban bedroom, In a white suburban town. As she lay there ‘neath the covers, Dreaming of a thousand lovers, ‘Til the world turned to orange, And the room went spinning round.
Chorus. At the age of thirty-seven, She realised she’d never ride, Through Paris in a sports car, With the warm wind in her hair. So she let the phone keep ringing, And she sat there softly singing, Little nursery rhymes she’d memorised, In her daddy’s easy chair. Her husband, he’s off to work, And the kids are off to school, And there are, oh, so many ways, For her to spend the day. She could clean the house for hours, Or rearrange the flowers, Or run naked through the shady street, Screaming all the way.
Repeat Chorus. The evening sun touched gently on, The eyes of Lucy Jordan, On the roof top where she climbed, When all the laughter grew too loud, And she bowed and curtsied to the man, Who reached and offered her his hand. And he led her down to the long white car, That waited past the crowd. At the age of thirty seven, She knew she’d found forever, As she rode along through Paris, With the warm wind in her hair.
END
After a period of heroin addiction in the 1970s, which at one point saw her living homeless on the streets of Soho; she resurrected her career with the classic album ‘Broken English’. The singer also had previously suffered multiple health problems, including bulimia, breast cancer and emphysema, latter caused by decades of smoking.
Ms Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and was made a commandeur of the ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres‘, by the government of France.
The singer was married and divorced three times, to artist John Dunbar in 1965, Ben Brierly of the punk band the ‘Vibrators’ in 1979, and actor Giorgio Della Terza in 1988.
Lyrics: The Late American singer/songwriter John Townes Van Zandt(1944–1997). Vocals: The Late American country music singer/songwriter Don Williams(1939–2017).
I’ll Be Here In The Morning.
There’s no stronger wind than, The one that blows, Down a lonesome railroad line. No prettier sight than looking back, On a town you left behind. There is nothing that’s as real, As a love that’s in my mind. Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning. Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while. There’s lots of things along the road, I’d surely like to see. I’d like to lean into the wind, And tell myself I’m free. But your softest whispers louder, Than the highways call to me. Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning. Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while. All the mountains and the rivers, And the valleys can’t compare, To your blue lit dancing eyes, And yellow shining hair. I could never hit the open road, And leave you laying there. Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning. Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while. Lay your head back easy, love, And close your crying eyes, I’ll be laying here beside you, When the sun comes on the rise. I’ll stay as long as the cuckoo wails, And the lonesome blue-jay cries. Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning. Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while. Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning. Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.
A poem “The Drawer” by that great extoller of ‘words with rich rural feeling’, Seamus O’Rourke.
Based in rural Ireland, Seamus has become widely known for his simple storytelling, which captures rural Irish life in a way that both amuses and affects the reader and listener.
In September 2024, Seamus released his much anticipated sequel to his popular first memoir, Standing in Gaps. Leaning on Gates is published by Gill Books and is available nationwide in bookshops.
Lyrics: A humorous Irish folk song, written by Liverpudlian Anthony Murphy, about a man whose father was a Protestant (“Orange”) and whose mother was a Catholic (“Green”). It describes the man’s trials as the product of religious intermarriage and how “mixed up” he became, as a result of such an upbringing. Vocals: Irish folk singer and guitarist, Dublin born Paddy Reilly.
The Orange and the Green
Oh, me father was an Ulster man, proud Protestant was he. Me mother was a Catholic girl, from county Cork came she. They had married in two churches, lived happily enough, Until the day that I was born and things got rather rough. Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen. Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green. Oh, Baptized by Father Riley, I got rushed away by car, To be made a little Orange man, me father’s shining star. I was christened “David Anthony”, but still, in spite of that, To me father, I was “William”, while my mother called me “Pat”. Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen. Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green. Up to Mass every Sunday, with Ma I’d proudly stroll. And after that, the Orange lodge would try to save me soul. Well I’d go along with both of them for I was smartly called. I’d play me harp or play me flute, depending where I was. Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen. Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green. Now, when I’d sing them rebel songs ‘twould fill my mother’s joy. My father he’d leap up and shout “Look here William me boy”, “That’s quite enough of that lot!”, he’d then toss’ me a coin, And have me thinking bally on the heroes of the Boyne. Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen. Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green. Well they’ve both passed on, God rest ’em, and left me caught between, The awful colour problem of the Orange and the Green. Oh it is the biggest mix up that you have ever seen. Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green. END
Vocals:English singer, presenter and actor Michael Ball. Lyrics:English lyricist, librettist and songwriter Charles Hart and English lyricist Don Black. Music:English composer and impresario of musical theatre Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Love Changes Everything.
Love, love changes everything, Hands and faces, earth and sky. Love, Love changes everything, How you live and how you die. Love can make the summer fly, Or a night seem like a lifetime. Yes, love, love changes everything, Now I tremble at your name Nothing in the world will ever be the same. Love, love changes everything, Days are longer, words mean more. Love, love changes everything, Pain is deeper than before. Love will turn your world around, And that world will last forever. Yes, love, love changes everything, Brings you glory, brings you shame, Nothing in the world will ever be the same. Off into the world we go, Planning futures, shaping years. Love bursts in, and suddenly, All our wisdom disappears. Love makes fools of everyone, All the rules we make are broken. Yes, love, love changes everything, Live or perish in its flame. Love will never, never let you be the same. Love will never, never let you be the same.
Love changes everything, Hands and faces, earth and sky. END.
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