Various Artists The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull In The Q Records / Bandbox A Fantastic Set of Songs that Reaches Deep and Really Delivers If there is an aging goddess of rock ‘n’ roll, Marianne Faithfull more...
Various Artists
The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull
In The Q Records / Bandbox
A Fantastic Set of Songs that Reaches Deep and Really Delivers
If there is an aging goddess of rock ‘n’ roll, Marianne Faithfull more than fits the bill.
She’s part Circe, part Medusa, and one of Rock Music’s greatest living legends. But even living legends need help at times, and after a bought with Covid which took what was left of her voice, Tanya Pearson, founder of Woman in Rock, An Oral History, teamed up with In the Q Records and Bandbox to raise money for Faithfull’s medical expenses.
The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull, is nineteen of Faithfull’s songs, reimagined by artists such as Cat Power, Iggy Pop, Tracy Bonham, Tanya Donelly, Josie Cotton, Tammy Faye Starlight, Lydia Lunch, Donita Sparks, and many more.
Now everyone going into this knows that they’re never going to top Faithfull’s original versions of these tunes.
She “owns” even the ones she didn’t write, with her unique style and power. But what we do get is some great renditions, and even a few that triumph mightily.
Cat Power and Iggy Pop have the “focus track,” a techno version of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero,” but that one didn’t really work for me, so I’m going to point out a few tracks that really did get my attention.
First up is Tracy Bonham’s version of the Jagger/Richards penned “As Tears Go By” which was Faithfull’s first big hit, the one that put her name in lights.
Bonham’s performance has a “December feel” to it, and if you know what that means you’re already ahead of the game. Sweet, without being over-treacly.
Tanya Donelly sings the prettiest song here with some glorious help from the Parkington Sisters on “This Little Bird,” from Faithfull’s first U.S. album in 1965.
It’s the horns on Sylvia Black’s “Sister Morphine” that set the mood, but it’s Black’s vocals that take it to the next level. This would easily fit well as the soundtrack to a film noir crime drama.
Josie Cotton brings a welcomed retro feel to “Summer Nights” and I must say it’s awesome to hear her voice again.
My favorite Faithfull song of all-time is “Broken English,” partially because I covered it in the 1980s in a band I was in. Faithfull’s version is accusatory, daring, and pulls no punches, which is what attracted it me as a young punk rocker.
You come away from her version reeling, trying to recover.
Joan Wasser, aka Joan as Police Woman, manages to pull off the mirror opposite of that with an inward, reserved plea for answers, help, and solace, while maintaining the grit and allure of this song.
Daring and subtly expressive, this version actually attempts to heal.
Both the quietest track here while also being one of the most intense.
One of the finest performances on this album.
“Over Here (No Time for Justice)” by Honeychild Coleman is driving with minimal instrumentation, ala early Vaselines. It’s amazing what the right artist can accomplish with such simple details and utilizing fully the “less is more” approach.
“Times Square” by Adele Bertei is faithful to the original while diving deeper into the story of the song with some bluesy guitars by Gregg Foreman and excellent bass by the same Sylvia Black who sang “Sister Morphine” earlier on this collection.
Dynamic and powerful, the musicians nail the restlessness of this song.
Tammy Faye Starlight, along with Barry Reynolds on some wonderful slide guitar, manages to encompass all that is Marianne Faithfull with a nuanced version of “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.” (Written by Shel Silverstein! How did I miss that before?) Starlight comes closest to embodying Faithfull honestly without losing sense of herself, a hard act indeed.
Starlight does a cabaret version of Faithfull (as well as Nico, and others) and shows here that she knows the territory well.
Bravo! (And if you didn’t know, Barry Reynolds is a longtime Faithfull collaborator, playing guitar and writing several of her most famous songs, many of which are featured on this compilation.)
Faithfull is well known for not holding back the least when it comes to language or subject matter, and several of these songs are well served in those departments.
Lydia Lunch’s “Love, Life, and Money,” Donita Sparks of the band L7 with her affected performance of “Sliding Through Life on Charm,” and most definitely Garbage’s Shirley Manson, who teams up with Peaches to bring some snarl and venom to “Why’d Ya Do It.”
All of these performances are top notch, holding nothing back.
The thrill of covering such a fearlessly unique artist as Faithfull is that you don’t have to worry about pushing too hard or going too far, as Faithfull herself has probably already done that. And this album isn’t all female artists, either.
Besides the aforementioned Iggy Pop, we also get the male-fronted bands Miss Guy with a straight-up danceable version of “Sex with Strangers,” and Feminine Aggression with an indie rock cover of “Before the Poison.”
Yes, this album is available on all those streaming services you already know about, but the point here is to raise funds for Faithfull’s medical expenses, so it’s also available as a beautiful two record set from Bandbox, featuring extensive liner notes, colored vinyl, and a striking painted cover by Jill Emery, the bassist in Hole and Mazzy Star amongst others.
The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull is a fantastic set of songs that reaches deep and delivers.
Release date: December 8 2023
Review by the Legendary Roy Peak
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