First as a doe-eyed ingĂŠnue with âAs Tears Go By,â then as a gravel-voiced phoenix rising from the ashes of the 1960s with a landmark punk album, Broken English, and finally as a genre-less icon, Marianne Faithfull carved her name into the history of rock ânâ roll to chart a career spanning five decades and multiple detours. In Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, Tanya Pearson crafts a feminist account that explains the musicianâs absence from the male-dominated history of the British Invasion and champions the eclectic late career that confirmed her redemption.
Putting memoir on equal footing with biographical history, Pearson writes about Faithfull as an avid fan, recovered addict, and queer musician at a crossroads. Sheâs also a professional historian unafraid to break from the expectations of the discipline if a âtitty-centered analysisâ or astrology can illuminate the work of her subject. Whether exploring Faithfullâs rise to celebrity, her drug addiction and fall from grace as spurned âmuse,â or her reinvention as a sober, soulful chanteuse subverting all expectations for an aging woman in music, Pearson affirms the deep connections between listeners and creators and reveals, in her own particular way, why Marianne Faithfull matters.