Marianne Faithfull – Broken English (1979) Review | I Love You Forever with Your Barbed-Wire Pussy and Your Good and Bad Weather
Kronomyth 8.0: Now we’re talking.
Vanilla O’Lay, my ass. Marianne Faithfull was originally packaged as a pretty blonde party doll back in the ‘60s, fell in with the Stones and became a party animal, and by the ‘70s was missing and presumed to have joined the likes of Edie Sedgwick in the list of pretty little girls sucked dry by the decadent vampire known as Fame. Only somehow Marianne managed to claw her way out of the dark woods, and what emerged was a black witch of Patti Smith proportions. Having subsisted on bitter roots for so long, Faithfull doesn’t sing anymore so much as spit poison, but in doing so she attracted a zombie army of would-be punks waiting for a female heroine to lead them into battle. In delicious irony, Mick Jagger becomes the reference point for her new persona, only Faithfull’s might be the bigger pair. There’s no chance at this stage (1980) Jagger could have called a lover’s hand as bluntly as Why D’Ya Do It, and only Roger Waters dripped more acid than Faithfull does on Working Class Hero. I’m not picking on the Stones here, just pointing out that the little flower they threw away had grown some nasty thorns and was possibly too prickly for even them to handle. That sort of backstory fuels Broken English. The album itself is good, influential for those who may have missed Patti Smith, but not the beginning of a new revolution so much as the induction of one more revolutionary. The spare, stripped-down, punkish sound was already established earlier by artists like Smith and Television. Faithfull is a fascinating focal point for the music, and this is probably where Broken English has the most to say. The way she growls through Guilt and What’s the Hurry was a revelation. It repels and attracts you at the same time, with the caveat that Faithfull didn’t seem to give a damn anymore about attracting anyone or anything. And so Broken English becomes a wonderfully free record: raw, angry and unapologetic.
The Product
A1. Broken English (Marianne Faithfull/Barry Reynolds/Joe Mavety/Steve York/Terry Stannard) (4:35)
A2. Witches’ Song (Marianne Faithfull/Barry Reynolds/Joe Mavety/Steve York/Terry Stannard) (4:43)
A3. Brain Drain (Ben Brierley) (4:13)
A4. Guilt (Barry Reynolds) (5:05)
B1. The Ballad of Lucy Jordan (Shel Silverstein) (4:09)
B2. What’s the Hurry (Joe Mavety) (3:05)
B3. Working Class Hero (John Lennon) (4:40)
B4. Why D’Ya Do It (Heathcote Williams/Barry Reynolds/Joe Mavety/Steve York/Terry Stannard/Marianne Faithfull) (6:45)
Australian bonus 7-inch single
A1. Broken English (remix)
B1. Broken English (extended version)
The Players
Marianne Faithfull (vocals), Dianne Birch, Frankie Collins, Jim Cuomo, Isabella Dulaney, Guy Humphries, Joe Mavety, Maurice Pert, Barry Reynalds, Terry Stannard, Darryl Way, Steve Windwood, Steve York. Produced by Mark Miller Mundy; engineered by Bob Potter; mix engineered by Ed Thacker.
The Pictures
Sleeve photography by Dennis Morris.
The Plastic
Released on elpee and cassette in October 1979 in the UK (Island, M-1), the US (Island, ILPS 9570), Australia (Island, L-36924), Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands (Island, 201 018-320/401 018-352), France (Island, 9123 052), Japan (Island, 20S-67) andYugoslavia (Jugoton, LSI-70934) with regional cover variations. Reached #57 on the UK charts and #82 on the US charts.
- Re-issued on elpee and cassette in September 1986 in the UK (Island, ILPM/ICM-9570) with blue cover variation.
- Re-issued on elpee and cassette in the US (Island, 90039-1/4).
- Re-packaged with Strange Weather on remastered 2-for-1 compact disc in 1995 in the US (Mobile Fidelity, UDCD-640).
- Re-issued on compact disc on September 30, 1999 in the Netherlands (Island, 842 355).
