Marianne Faithfull Part 2: "Broken English" (1979)

Tweet

By 1970, Marianne Faithfull was a singing star, movie star and international celebrity due to her liaison with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. The good times crashed. Faithfull became a heroin user and alcoholic and that plus other drug use and chain smoking damaged her looks and made her voice cracked and rasping. In 1979, she made a comeback with her best album “Broken English.” While not a big commercial success, the album was critically acclaimed yielding the minor UK hit “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.” The title track is terrific. Written by Faithfull and four others, “Broken English” is about terrorism inspired by Germany’s notorious Baader-Meinhof gang. The song received alternative radio play in the US due to its new wave sound of synthasizer and quirky sound effects. Faithfull received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Since “Broken English,” Faithfull has recorded more acclaimed albums, written her autobiography and returned to acting including a guest shot on “Absolutely Fabulous.” She received a Best Actress European Film Award nomination (Europe’s answer to the Oscars) for her performance in “Irina Palm” which I saw and she is outstanding. Marianne Faithfull is now a Baroness, a title she inherited.