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Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island ILPS 9570)

Toby Goldstein, High Fidelity, March 1980

MARIANNE FAITHFULL cut her first record, 'As Tears Go By', fifteen years ago. She was seventeen and fresh out of pre-convent boarding school — a wispy, blonde, blue-eyed dream. But dreams die hard, and as the Sixties crashed so did Marianne — into the nightmare of a junkie's life. Her last American release, in 1969, was the desperate, dirgelike 'Sister Morphine', in which her own life was mirrored in the song's message of insatiable craving.

Total word count of piece: 348

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