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The Wilderness Years and the Transformation of Voice 10:40 Jackson: So, Lena, imagine this: it’s the early 70s, and Marianne Faithfull—the woman who was just a few years ago the "Queen of the Sixties"—is literally living on a wall in Soho. She’s homeless, she’s battling severe heroin addiction, and for the most part, the music industry has completely written her off.
10:59 Lena: It’s just incredible that she survived that period at all. I was reading that she actually had an obituary written for her in 1972—when she was only twenty-six! People just didn't expect her to make it. But even in the depths of that addiction, the creative impulse didn't totally die. She was still trying to work, though it was sporadic. She did a movie called *Assault on Agathon* in 1975, and she started working on an album called *Masques* around 1971.
11:26 Jackson: Right, though *Masques* was shelved for over a decade because she was just too unstable. But there’s a really interesting shift that happens in the mid-70s. In 1976, she releases *Dreamin' My Dreams*, which is this country-influenced record. And surprisingly, it goes to number one in Ireland! It was this tiny glimmer of hope that there was still an audience out there that cared about her voice.
11:48 Lena: But her voice was changing, wasn't it? I mean, physically.
11:51 Jackson: Absolutely. This is one of the most fascinating parts of her musical evolution. The pristine, high soprano of "As Tears Go By" was gone. Years of heavy smoking, drug use, and a severe bout of laryngitis had literally physically altered her vocal cords. Her voice became this deep, husky, weather-beaten rasp.
12:12 Lena: It’s like her life story was being written into her throat. You can hear the experience, the trauma, and the resilience in every note. And what’s amazing is that she eventually learned to use that new voice as a powerful instrument. Instead of mourning the "angelic" sound she lost, she embraced this new, raw authenticity.
12:32 Jackson: It really paved the way for her massive comeback. But before we get to the music, we have to talk about the personal side of the late 70s. In 1979, she marries Ben Brierley, who was a musician in the punk band The Vibrators. This is such a cool transition—she moves from the bohemian 60s into the aggressive, raw energy of the London punk scene.
12:53 Lena: And that punk energy was exactly what she needed to reinvent herself. It gave her a framework to be angry, to be honest, and to stop trying to be "pretty." She said she felt she had to create her own "Frankenstein" to obliterate her past. She needed a sound that was as jagged and "broken" as her life had been.
13:11 Jackson: Which leads us directly to the album *Broken English* in 1979. It was a total "fuck you" to the industry that had dismissed her. She worked with producer Mark Miller Mundy, and they created this dark, New Wave, reggae-infused sound. It was miles away from "As Tears Go By." It was aggressive, it was political—taking inspiration from things like the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
13:34 Lena: I love the story behind the song "Why D’Ya Do It." It’s based on a poem by Heathcote Williams about sexual betrayal, and it’s so explicit that it caused huge controversy. UK pressing plants even refused to handle the record! But that was the point, right? She was reclaiming her agency by being "too much"—too honest, too loud, too vulgar for the "polite" society that had shamed her.
0:49 Jackson: Exactly. She was showing the "bastards," as she put it, who she really was. And the industry had to take notice. The album was a critical triumph and even earned her a Grammy nomination. It introduced her to a whole new generation who didn't care about the Redlands bust or Mick Jagger. To them, she was a New Wave icon.
14:16 Lena: It’s such a powerful example of cause and effect. The trauma of the 70s—the homelessness, the addiction—it stripped her down to her core. And from that core, she built this entirely new artistic identity. She used the very thing that was supposed to have "ruined" her—her damaged voice—to command a new kind of respect.
14:35 Jackson: It really was a "recalibration," as the filmmakers Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth called it. She wasn't just surviving anymore; she was thriving on her own terms. She even did a high-profile appearance on *Saturday Night Live* in 1980, though that didn't go perfectly because she accidentally ingested some dental anesthetic—classic Marianne! But even the setbacks felt like part of the authentic, unvarnished life she was leading.
14:59 Lena: She was finally being recognized as an artist in her own right. She said that being seen as more than "Mick Jagger's ex" was a "lifetime's job," and *Broken English* was the moment she truly started to win that battle. It’s a testament to her sheer grit. She took the pieces of a "broken" life and turned them into a masterpiece.