Totally Unauthorized

I had to sneak the photo. Famous bloggers get to step right up and shoot.

We live a pretty spontaneous life.  Got an invitation at 6:45 tonight to go see Marianne Faithful at Yoshi’s.  Bought the tickets online, changed my shirt and off we went.

We all remember her from her one big hit, As Tears Go By, back in the early 60’s.  She was the ultimate party girl, admitting she set out to get a Rolling Stone, slept with three of them and settled on Mick Jagger.  Years of drug addiction followed, with highly publicized arrests (clad only in a fur rug, once), rehab stints and multiple comebacks.

Now 63, the rightful Baroness von Sacher-Masoch  (her Uncle Leopold gave his name to masochism) still has to make a living, and touring is the way to do it.

Yoshi’s was sold out last night–I got our seats at 6:38, and there were people out front trying to buy tickets at 7:30.  The show nominally started at 8:00, and by 8:10 she was onstage and things were rolling.

Faithful comes onstage with just a guitar player for backup.  His name is Doug Pettibone, and I was impressed by his ability to use the guitar to provide a strong bass line as well as the melody.

Too many years of hard living have taken a toll on Faithful’s voice–what was once high and clear and sweet is now deep, rich, whisky-soaked and dark.  It is a voice custom made for songs of pain and hurt, so that’s what she sings.  No happy puppy love songs here.

The repertoire is varied–songs by Jagger and Richards, of course.  Then her own writing,  Then Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Cole Porter and Tom Waits, among others.  The themes of pain and loss remain, but the genre varies all over the map.

The show lasted about an hour and a half, with the obligatory encore.  Solid professionalism kept the pace steady and the evening moved along nicely.

Forty-five years is a long time to be singing As Tears Go By, but Marianne Faithful sells the song better today than she did at 19.  She has grown into the depth of her own words, and the show was a delight.