Often, singers lose their voices as they get older, or at least partially; some, however, gain them. Along with charisma and personality. Take Marianne Faithfull.
Oh, nice! I literally just picked up the album she did with Nick Cave & PJ Harvey (I of course don't have it with me and am blanking on the name) but what an interesting career.
Here's a great interview from last year, covering both the career and all the people she worked with, plus old (Keith Jaggers, Paul McCartney) and new friends (Nick Cave) alike:
Oh my god, I've never seen her do Sister Morphine. Thanks for the link! And I've heard a different version of her Alabama Song (albeit too croaky for me), so this'll be interesting.
The first song of hers I ever heard was Last Song (written by Damon Albarn, which is why I checked it out, and which he later retitled Green Fields and did his own version of, which is softer and also beautiful) and she has definitely harnessed the power of being haunting. It was amazing. (I think if you took her version of the chorus and Damon's version of the verses and put them together, somebody's mind would be blown.) Another song I listen to a lot from her is her version of Sunny Goodge Street, which is from before she set her voice on fire but is also incredibly haunting. I like the Donovan version too when I listen to it, but hers is the one I'm much more frequently moved to listen to.
Yay for her! Yeah, TV used to have weeeeeiiird hang-ups about pregnant. I Love Lucy had a whole pregnancy storyline where you were even allowed to see Lucy with a mama belly but nobody ever said the word "pregnant." *shrug*
Pregnancy hang-up: It's bizarre, isn't it? On the one hand, all the emphasis on family values, and on the other hand, a pregnant woman is somehow something that shouldn't be seen? *shrugs as well*
Saw Marianne the other day in the 1998 documentary The Brian Epstein Story (she clearly liked him very much and said he was the manager who really cared about his clients. Also that there hadn't been any a phenomenon like Lennon or Jagger before, and she and Brian thought the closest (to Mick) was Nijinsky or Valentino).
Woman's Hour on Radio Four just had an interview with Astrid Kirchherr, who's about to have a retrospective in Liverpool. The rest of the programme is still going on but it should be available to listen again later.
First of all, thank you for the link! I hadn't heard Astrid Kirchherr's voice before, though I had read the occasional interview.
Secondly, re: Brian Epstein and Marianne about same, Alistair Taylor once said she had a crush on him. :) And yes, he was the anti-cliché of the cynical manager and cared all too much. Poor Brian. BTW, I finally tracked down The Hours and Time and managed to watch it. The actor who plays him really amazingly looks and sounds like him! Also, good film, and Ian Hart is again excellent.
I'd love to see The Hours and the Times again! Maybe I should order it. I remember taking a friend to see it in London when it came out, and then realising I'd taken her to two films with gay themes and she probably thought I was trying to chat her up!
If you're not fuzzy about the format. (Some of the comments are amazing, though, like the one concluding "so that's why John Lennon let his hair grow long". Though that in turn is nothing compared with "did the Beatles hate America?" (question beneath a Back in the USSR vid) or the rants about Obama (in the vids about Paul getting the Gershwin award recently) on about how John would never have supported him (Obama, not Paul).)
Back to The Most Tragic Manager Ever: as yesterday was the anniversary of poor Brian's death, here he is two months before that, looking happy, for there were those moments, too:
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http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/marianne-faithfull-interview
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The first song of hers I ever heard was Last Song (written by Damon Albarn, which is why I checked it out, and which he later retitled Green Fields and did his own version of, which is softer and also beautiful) and she has definitely harnessed the power of being haunting. It was amazing. (I think if you took her version of the chorus and Damon's version of the verses and put them together, somebody's mind would be blown.) Another song I listen to a lot from her is her version of Sunny Goodge Street, which is from before she set her voice on fire but is also incredibly haunting. I like the Donovan version too when I listen to it, but hers is the one I'm much more frequently moved to listen to.
And she was a crazily pretty girl. =D
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Woman's Hour on Radio Four just had an interview with Astrid Kirchherr, who's about to have a retrospective in Liverpool. The rest of the programme is still going on but it should be available to listen again later.
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Secondly, re: Brian Epstein and Marianne about same, Alistair Taylor once said she had a crush on him. :) And yes, he was the anti-cliché of the cynical manager and cared all too much. Poor Brian. BTW, I finally tracked down The Hours and Time and managed to watch it. The actor who plays him really amazingly looks and sounds like him! Also, good film, and Ian Hart is again excellent.
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Back to The Most Tragic Manager Ever: as yesterday was the anniversary of poor Brian's death, here he is two months before that, looking happy, for there were those moments, too:
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