Photo by Mariu Mochnacz

After 40 years, Marianne Faithfull has just
quit smoking. Can you imagine? But the way she talks about it — her voice as
throaty over the phone as you’d imagine — giving up her Marlboro Lights wasn’t
surrender. It was just change — awful, real, good change.
Faithfull is not afraid of good, painful change, and this is partly why, at
58, she’s just made the album of her career, Before the Poison
(on which she collaborates with Polly Jean Harvey, Nick Cave, Jon Brion
and Damon Albarn). Harvey demanded Faithfull take singing lessons to regain
her upper register — and Faithfull dutifully did so. (“It cost a fortune,”
she says — “but I got my range back.”)
So much is made of artists who die young, especially those musicians who didn’t
survive the ’60s. It’s time we got over that shit and considered the gift artists
give us when they don’t die — ladies especially. Like Loretta Lynn and
Nancy Sinatra (who also recorded career-topping albums recently with young indie
dudes), Faithfull really does get better with age — and I’m not saying that
to sound cozy. It’s the fucking truth. It’s as if there’s a warm wind blowing
through her life now. Maybe it’s just love.
L.A. Weekly: Congratulations on quitting smoking.
That’s a big accomplishment.
Marianne Faithfull: Not yet! It’ll be an accomplishment if I manage
to get through it. But I will. I’ve come off worse . . . I don’t know actually
if that’s true. I think coming off cigarettes is probably the hardest thing
I’ve ever done. Of course, the big worry, as you know, is that I’m going to
get very fat. That’s basically the reason we smoke. [Laughs.]
As somebody who interprets other people’s
songs really well —
I channel them — that’s what I’m doing.
Did you choose from a lot of songs
for this album?
Well, this album is very unusual, because there are only four people on it.
I love Kissin’ Time [her 2002 album, which involved Beck, Albarn,
Jarvis Cocker, Billy Corgan et al.]. But there were too many people on it. It
would have been better without Dave Stewart. I found working with four people
[on Poison] much better. And of course Polly did a lot of it, and Nick,
and there’s one with Damon Albarn and one with Jon Brion — which is one of my
favorites. “City of Quartz.” It’s about Los Angeles. But it’s also taken from
The Third Man.
The movie? Is that a movie?
Is that a movie? Where have you been? You better go and rent it!
I have bizarre patches of ignorance.
Go and rent it immediately. If you haven’t seen The Third Man,
you haven’t lived.
Oh good, I was wondering what was
missing!
Sorry — my father was a university lecturer, and I’ve obviously got some of
that! [Laughs.] My mother was a teacher, too, so I’m a terrible didactic kind
of person!
Being yelled at by Marianne Faithfull
is okay by me. I read a comment
somewhere that this album was “a good
Polly Harvey record.”
Stupid. I met Polly in Los Angeles — we had to meet to see if we liked each
other. And we kind of fell in love. But musicians never know much about what’s
going to happen — except we knew one thing, me and Polly. We said we’re going
to make a very, very dark record. And we did. And then she came to Paris, and
that’s when we did the sort of John-and-Paul, eyeball-to-eyeball writing business.
I took her to a French dinner party, and she’s very, very shy, and I think she
was quite freaked out. But the next morning she wrote this very beautiful song
called “My Friends Have,” with both our perspectives in it. I really believe
that song, but Polly’s perspective is a lot more ironic. I know, because
I know Polly.
Also, it was cool, as someone who
grew up with indie rock, to hear
an artist from a different generation
being presented with that aesthetic.
Yep. Yep. That’s exactly what she wanted. And I’m very good at that.
She’s the producer, she tells me what to do, and I do it! And she’s very bossy,
too. Well, in a very gentle way. In her own passive-aggressive way she was very,
very clear.
I’m a big fan of Nick Cave’s The
Boatman’s Call.
Oh, it’s so beautiful.
One of the interesting things about that
album is the legend that half of
it is about Polly.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah; blah, blah, blah. Who shagged who? I’m so over that. Let’s
leave that alone. He’s very happily married, she’s got a fabulous boyfriend.
It’s years ago. Nick was quite wary of doing a record on which Polly Harvey
was, and Polly, too. They’re way over it.
Fair enough.
The big love affairs on this record are me and Polly, and me and Nick. And maybe
me and Jon Brion [giggles]. I’m a bit over Damon, I must admit.
Is Polly going to sing with you
in L.A.?
I don’t know. I’m shy to ask her. Polly has given so much to this record — I’m
not sure if I want her to feel in any way used. That’s one thing I’m very careful
about. I don’t use people.
My mother says that life begins at
50.
[Laughs.] That’s true. Yeah. You get more comfortable in your skin. And with
any luck you find your great love.
You mean . . .
Yesss. Real love.
It takes that long?
Well, it did for me. It took me a long time.
Who’s the artist you most admire right
now?
Bob Dylan. Oh, man, I think Chronicles is so wonderful. And I’ve
loved his music all my life, of course, and he’s a friend of mine, and actually
I’m going to go and see his show when I’m in L.A.
What impressed you about the book?
The beauty of the writing. I saw him in Australia and we had a lovely time together,
and he told me he was writing his autobiography. And I was terribly pleased.
But when I read it, I mean, it was just so wonderful, and all the musical references
were so fascinating. The knowledge. Everything. And the literary stuff. It sent
me and my lover on a Balzac sort of spin.
Were you impressed by the way he
managed to open up about his personal
life without really —
That is the most brilliant bit about it. He’s so gentle on everybody. And he
could have been so mean.
Do you have a favorite song?
“God Bless the Child.”
What does that mean to you?
Well, I love Billie Holiday. I love the idea behind it. God bless the child
that’s got his own.
It takes a long time to understand
it.
It does take a long time to sink in. But God bless the child
that’s got his own, that’s got his
own — is one of the most profound things anyone ever wrote.
Is there anything in your life you
haven’t done yet that you’d like to
try?
Oh yeah! I want to build a house according to how I really want: a lovely wooden
house with a tower. And I want to make a garden. This is obviously in my retirement
in about five years’ time. [Chuckles.]


Marianne Faithfull performs at the Henry Fonda Theater, 6126 Hollywood Blvd.,
on Friday, March 25, at 9 p.m.

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