There is an awesome interview with the wondrous and brilliant Marianne Faithfull in the The Guardian this week which I highly recommend (read it here). In it she ruminates about being a muse to the grandest Rolling Stones songs (“A muse ? That’s a shit thing to be”), smoking (“Oh man, I wish I’d never picked up a cigarette in my life”)…and how close she came to dying during her recent bout with covid-19 (she was so ill that at one point it was recommended she be treated with “palliative care only”). While Marianne’s 1979 album Broken English album is rightfully regarded as her masterpiece I have to admit my absolute favorite song of hers comes from from one of her (far) less popular albums, 1983’s A Child’s Adventure. It’s called “Morning Come” (listen here) and is a million miles from the usual gritty graceful power hymns Marianne usually serves up. It is delicate and extremely melodic and while it does mention “riding on a hummingbird’s wings”, it isn’t happy. It’s more on the darkly hopeful side, a sweet and swoon-worthy heartbreaker.
When will the morning come?
I wait in darkness so long
Will the sun ever rise again?
Hours flowing over me
I wait in vain for some change
Will light ever pierce this pain?
“Morning Come” was the first song that came to mind as I read the last paragraph of the interview. A Doctor had told her that her lungs would likely never recover from the virus. Marianne goes on to say “Where I finally ended up is: OK, maybe they won’t, but maybe, by a miracle, they will. I don’t know why I believe in miracles. I just do. Maybe I have to, the journey I’ve been on, the things that I’ve put myself through, that I’ve got through so far and I’m OK. Does that sound really corny?…we must be hopeful – it’s really important. And I am, yes. I’m bloody still here.” As if we need any more reason to go blast some bloody Marianne 🌹
Welcome to the latest WEEKLY NEW WONDERS PLAYLIST featuring the finest new music we’ve heard over the past week, one that was absolutely stuffed with wondrous, weird, in your face pop music (I’m tellin’ you we were absolutely blessed). You can listen below to the songs currently tied for Number # 1 over on earth 1 where they are hopefully having better days than those of us here on earth 2. On a hummingbird’s wings…
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PICKING UP ROCKS 