How ultimate ‘it girl’ Marianne Faithfull’s life was shaped by relationship with Mick Jagger and decade of darkness

MARIANNE FAITHFULL was the Sixties pin-up who was so much more than a pretty face.

Her death at 78 yesterday marked the passing of one of Britain’s most intriguing and accomplished singers — the ultimate “it girl”, the rock star muse who became Mick Jagger’s lover for four years, the leather-clad Girl On A Motorcycle.

Last night Mick tweeted his condolences: “I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull.

“She was so much part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress. She will always be remembered.”

And fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richards — who also had a fling with her — posted a message with a picture of him and Marianne: “My heartfelt condolences to Marianne’s family! I’m so sad and will miss her!! Love, Keith.”

Her career fell into two distinct parts — before and after her life-changing troubles.

These included heroin addiction, anorexia, severe laryngitis and homelessness.

Yet she emerged from a decade of darkness at the end of the Seventies with strikingly original music — an evocative, lived-in rasp replacing the sweet, clear vocals present on her Sixties hits.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” said her representative last night.

“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull was born in Hampstead, North London, on December 29, 1946, little more than a year after the Second World War.

Her mother Eva was a Hungarian, half-Jewish baroness and former ballet dancer who had fled the Nazis.

Her father was a notably colourful character — Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, a one-time MI6 agent who eventually settled on a career as a professor of Italian literature.

Perhaps her free spirit came from her childhood at a country house called Braziers Park, in Oxfordshire, which her father turned into a commune where promiscuity reigned.

Marianne’s mother took her away, moving her into a terraced house in Reading and sending her to St Joseph’s Roman Catholic boarding school.

It was during this time that teenage Marianne started eschewing her studies in favour of pursuing a singing career.

She began by singing a cappella in the coffee houses of Reading — not exactly New York’s Greenwich Village scene populated by the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, but it was a start.

Her big break came in 1964 when she attended a Rolling Stones party and, because of her enchanting looks, was spotted by the band’s producer Andrew Loog Oldham.

She was still just 17 when she released her haunting debut single As Tears Go By, co-written by future boyfriend Mick Jagger with his songwriting partner Keith Richards.

The wistful ballad was one of the first things ever written by the two Stones but they thought it not suitable for their swaggering rock. So Oldham handed it to the girl with the long blonde hair.

This was the sweet, innocent-sounding Marianne, whose voice betrayed an endearing fragility, who was to release a string of captivating singles and albums. Her best-loved songs at the time were Come Stay With Me, This Little Bird, Summer Nights and a cover of The Beatles’ Yesterday.

And though she turned Bob Dylan down when he came to London in 1965, she began a high-profile four-year relationship with Jagger in 1966.

Marianne later admitted she had slept with three members of the Stones — Mick, Keith and guitarist Brian Jones — but decided that “the singer was the best bet”.

Free spirit

It is said, though not confirmed, that the Stones songs You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Wild Horses both had her in mind.

And one of the band’s most famous songs, Sympathy For The Devil, was inspired by a Russian novel called The Master And Margarita, introduced to Mick by Marianne.

As a pair, they epitomised the Swinging Sixties and attracted huge interest in the media, including lurid headlines.

When police raided Redlands, Keith’s house in deepest Sussex, Marianne was discovered naked except for a fur rug which barely covered her modesty.

It was after this that she was accused of a sex act involving a Mars bar but she strongly denied that any such thing happened.

Like so many in the limelight during that era, drugs took a grip on Marianne.

It was documented in the song she co-wrote with Jagger and Richards, Sister Morphine, a scary, narcotic haze set to music, on the Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

By then, her relationship with Jagger had disintegrated and her pop career had hit the buffers.

But she will also be remembered for her acting roles. In 1967 she took to the stage at London’s Royal Court opposite Glenda Jackson in the Chekov play Three Sisters.

She is credited with being the first person to say “f***” in a mainstream film, in 1967’s I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname.

But by far her most famous screen role has to be her sexually overt portrayal of The Girl On A Motorcycle in 1968, noted for being America’s first X-rated film.

What was really remarkable about Marianne was how far down she spiralled in the Seventies. She lost custody of her son and she went into a coma after a suicide attempt. But her fighting spirit was more than evident on her 1979 album Broken English, and its signature song The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan.

She followed with another strong outing, 1981’s Dangerous Acquaintances, which ended with the searing Truth, Bitter Truth. She went on to make an acclaimed long-lasting second chapter of her music career, drawing on jazz and blues in particular.

Her final album was the 2021 experimental collaboration with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ Australian multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, called She Walks In Beauty.

She made a full recovery from breast cancer in 2006 and said afterwards: “It has been an extraordinary experience and, in many ways, extremely positive.

“I didn’t realise how many true friends I had. I feel so lucky and loved and thank everybody for all their good thoughts.”

In April 2020, she spent three weeks in hospital with Covid and emerged quite frail — but with her spirit undimmed to the end.