Marianne Faithfull
Blazing Away

THE REVIEW

Sometimes life is strange; one thinks that to buy a great album, you need a bit of money or the usual 10 Euros for reissues. Instead, one day you walk into any megastore and buy a piece of history for 4 euros. It's funny; that's how I came to own this extraordinary live album by an artist who has always fascinated me and whom I admire for her great, immense willpower.

Once a muse for the Rolling Stones, Faithfull, the daughter of an Austrian baroness, fell into severe drug addiction in the '70s, which led her to attempt suicide multiple times. Then, incredibly, she was reborn, first personally with detoxification and then artistically with the famous and beautiful "Broken English."

This live recording, captured in 1989 in New York, is the most concrete affirmation of the artist's life; the sensations that Faithfull's hoarse and powerful voice, inherited from years of excess, convey are unique. Just listen to her rendition of Lennon's "Working Class Hero", where the delicate acoustic threads of the original version are transformed into vibrant rock pulsations; the sound of the drums is unique and impeccable, despite everything being played in a cathedral. Noteworthy is the cover of "Strange Weather," or the eight minutes of "Guilt," and then "Sister Morphine," far superior to the original version by the "Rolling Stones," with Marianne’s voice highlighting the dramatic elements of the song. Following is "As Tears Go By," the first song recorded in 1964, written by Jagger and Richards, here in an impeccable execution that draws new life from Faithfull's radically changed voice. The rest of the work is on the same level as the mentioned songs, particularly listen to "Times Square," Marianne's solo voice in "She Moved Through The Fair," and the rhythmic "Broken English" that closes the album.

Listen to it, I highly recommend it to you, and you will discover an artist who has improved tremendously over the years and is today a respected performer, who above all has taken sweet revenge against the "rolling bones."