Goodbye, Marianne

As I've said before, I don't plan on running obituaries on every artist, writer or musician that once meant something to me. If I did that, I'd never post anything else. Certain people pass, though, and it feels necessary, somehow, to mark a fresh absence in the world.

In the case of Marianne Faithful, who died yesterday at the age of 78, it just so happens I once wrote a song about her. I thought I might just post the lyrics. They have an elegiac feel to them or I like to think so.

Naked Under Leather

Downtime waiting at the jail gate door
Taken so much you gotta take more
Love so rich he's making you poor
Don't understand what you're doing it for

Eyes wide open, hair so long
Wrapped in the paper of a throwaway song
Looking at you hard like you grew up wrong
You'd like to break down but you're too damn strong

Moroccan sand and the white paint wall
You can hear one crying and the other one call
They say the higher you fly the faster you fall
You listen and look and say nothing at all

It's something so easy to do what they say
You tried to keep it and to give it away
Followed the path and lost your way
You try to come out but you're in there to stay

There's a scarf on the lamp and smoke in the air
You're begging for help but there's no-one there
You want to go out but there's nothing to wear
It's all been sold and you're running scared

You fight your way clear of Norwegian wood
It's dirty and clean and they tell you it's good
It wasn't worth waiting but you thought that you should
You'd let it all go but you never could

You're naked under leather
Naked under leather
Naked under leather

The title, of course, is the alternative name for the infamous feature film in which she starred, Girl On A Motorcycle. The full movie is on YouTube if you're interested although how long it'll stay there is anyone's guess. I saw it on TV once. It's a slow watch.

It's also not what I'd want to remember Marianne for. That would mostly be the superb Broken English album she released in 1979. That's also available in full on YouTube if you don't own a copy, which you certainly should, although nowadays who owns anything?

She made a lot of good music before and after but that's the one that matters. To me, anyway.

The song I wrote is mostly about the time she spent as what people used to like to call a muse to various famous musicians That's something that will always be linked to her memory but again, it's not what I want to remember her for. She far surpassed any kind of supporting role to become the superstar of her own, exceptional life.

That's about all I want to say. Probably ought to finish with an example of her work. She had to go to court to prove her co-authorship on this one. Figures.