Reluctant pin-up: Marianne Faithfull reveals how she was damaged by her early brush with fame
By Rachel Shields

She was the Sixties pin-up whose beauty bewitched Mick Jagger and inspired some of the Rolling Stones' most famous songs, but Marianne Faithfull has revealed that she hates the way she looks, can't bear to see photographs of herself and is still dealing with the damaging effects of being catapulted to fame at a young age.

The British singer-songwriter, as famous for her relationship with Jagger and her lengthy battle with drug addiction as for her performing career, also warned that young women in the public gaze risk becoming "addicted" to fame.

"When you are 18, 19, 20, you're used to being photographed all the time, in a certain way," she said. "So, the narcissism becomes almost out of control. And the way that young women are photographed, they become addicted to this feedback of the image. I'm still dealing with it."

Although she has been snapped by internationally renowned photographers including David Bailey and Annie Leibovitz, Faithfull admits that she hates pictures of herself. "I never like photos of myself in the beginning. I live with them for three months, put them in a drawer, take them out and look again. I hate the way I look, but of course it's really not that bad."

The singer, whose music career has spanned four decades, made a successful comeback in 1979 with her album Broken English after drug addiction left her living on the streets. She has just completed a month-long tour of the US with her latest album Easy Come, Easy Go, a collection of covers of popular songs by artists including Billie Holiday and Morrissey.

Faithfull, whose doe-eyed looks won her a legion of fans, also revealed in an interview with the film director Mike Figgis that she was unhappy with the famously risqué photos for which she posed in 1964.

"What Terry O'Neill did was dress me up – he was trying to make a sexy picture. I was in stockings and suspenders, and of course I looked absolutely beautiful, but I looked wrong. That overt sexuality is just so not me. It's like I 'smashed' my image from virginal schoolgirl to the opposite."

Unlike other famous beauties of her generation, Faithfull is adamant that photos of her should reflect what she actually looks like.

"I'm so much older. I've stopped caring about beauty, but I still care about truth," she said. "I'd love to play a musician in a film. I always want to bring my image and my real self together, and I haven't done that yet."

A full version of this interview appears in the book Destroy/Rankin, to which 70 leading musicians have contributed, which will be published by the charity Youth Music as part of its 10th birthday campaign. To buy the book, go to youthmusic.org.uk/rankin

[www.independent.co.uk]

She sure talks alot.

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

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The Menace of Mayfair
She sure talks alot.

May be because she has a lot of things to say ?
She'd never bashed about Jagger ,did she ?
And yes , she's talking a lot about herself ...but she seems so wise ,especially compared to what she went through .

I saw some recent pics of her in a thread on IORR.
There is a big difference between a beautiful twenty year old and a beautiful fifty year old. Some will say it's the beauty of youth. Others the beauty of a soul. I think it's B******t !

But ,in another hand/way ,there is not comparision between Miss Ekaterina & the luminous Keith's wife ,isn't it ? .Patti is much more beautiful than Ronnie's girfriend will ever be .

Being such a beautiful girl (what a pretty face she had !)as Marianne when she was young -you know ,always those same “Wow! You look great!” "Wow ,you look so hot ! "comments must not be that easy to deal with I've never met her bit I think she's cleaver woman .She knows the difference for sure .



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

You sure talk alot.

darned early fame brushes, they'll do it every time.

She tops the list for biggest attention-whore. Who would be interested in her if she had not been MJ's girlfriend in the late 60s?
Does anyone seriously think she has any talent as a singer, musician, composer or a writer?

She sure talks a lot.

Marianne was attractive and mildly talented but also self-centered and pretentious about her somewhat shallow knowledge of art and culture.

She treated Jagger badly, she treated her mother badly, her son badly and eventually she became turned herself into a total mess.

I wish her the best; she should thank her lucky stars every day that she was offered a great deal of help along the way.

i was theenkin' she sure talks a lot.

it's her latter brushes with fame that offend me...

like she could get a deal if she hadn't @#$%& half the band


"reluctant" HAWWWWW sniff sniff. get all yo money and the guyz for free. to sorta quote guitar george who knows all the chords...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-27 00:56 by Beelyboy.

Upon further review, I was right. She talks a lot.

I heard a little of Easy Come Easy Go on NPR without knowing it was Marianne. I thought "who is this person with the thin off-key voice and why is NPR playing it?" She might be loads for some folks but she sounds like crap to me.

>Does anyone seriously think she has any talent as a singer, musician, composer or a writer?

Of course (though I'm sure that was a rhetorical question).

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From4tilLate
I heard a little of Easy Come Easy Go on NPR without knowing it was Marianne. I thought "who is this person with the thin off-key voice and why is NPR playing it?" She might be loads for some folks but she sounds like crap to me.

Guess that's why it's called an art form. A beautiful piece of work in one persons eyes is so much garbage in someone else's. At least she's working and making a living. The alternative (being a homeless dope fiend) does not sound quite as appealing.

CBII

"Marianne Faithfull reveals how she was damaged by her early brush with fame"

Who would have known?

And there was I thinking that it was the smack that damaged her. Duh!

Surely, Miss Martyr Marianne has had some compensation for being 'damaged.'? Everybody has been damaged in one way or another during their lives but we don't talk about it in The Independent. Cry me a river, Evelyn.

And?

Wise words CBII

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Keep On Rolling

I recommend her biography, her autobiography, and A E Hotchner's Stones book which contains long interviews. She has excellent recall and good insights about the late 60s with the Stones.

Apart from that...save your time and money.